The second edition of the Elite Football League of India is back in Sri Lanka on a grand scale with a total of 16 teams participating in the top tier for the championship that will be worked off at the CR & FC grounds on the 27th and 28th of June 2015.
The EFLI which is South Asia’s premiere Flag Football tournament which is the first of its kind in the country in the sport was first played in 2012 with the active participation of teams from India, Pakistan & Sri Lanka. Flag Football is a downsized version of the America Football format where the standard rules of American Football apply. Speaking at the press conference last evening, Director of EFLI, the renown Dilroy Fernando mentioned that this years’ tournament will come alive in a whole new format aiming to take the sport to the local sports following in the country.
The tournament will be held in a group format and later moved on to a knockout stage. The 16 teams that would be participating in this championship are divided into four groups. The leaders of each group will advance to the top cup division and the rest will compete for the plate, bowl and shield titles. Altogether there would be four trophies on offer in the coming weekend for the sixteen teams who would be competing.
Mr Dilory Fernando further elaborated as to how the first initiative took place. American Football which is quite an alien sport in this part of the subcontinent was a hard initiative to build but with several programmes and training session, the panel were able to introduce the sport to the universities. Now four local universities and other many other foreign education institutes play the sport.
He explains that taking the sport out of Colombo was a significant milestone in the sport’s history. A few weeks back the ELFI team and the training staff travelled up to Jaffna to initiate the sport in the northern peninsula. He mentioned that the enthusiasm shown by the sportsmen in embracing the sport was quite admirable and to add to that, two teams from Jaffna will participate in the tournament this coming week.
South Asian Gateway Terminals (SAGT) Pvt. Limited will partner up with ELFI in its 2015 edition taking the title for the platinum sponsor. SAGT who are one of the leading clearing and logistics agents in the Colombo port have actively engaged in sports for a considerable period. Speaking at the media briefing, CEO of SAGT, Mr. Eden Haaze mentioned that he is delighted to be an active contributor to introduce the sport in the country. SAGT will empower the ELFI 2015 edition and will be providing all the equipment and the gear for all the participating teams.
National Director Dilroy believes that through this tournament they would be able to gather a bunch of talented players to form a Kandy and a Colombo team which later can be utilized to form a national squad. He hopes that through this, Sri Lanka could participate in the tri series with neighboring nations India Pakistan in the months to come.
The participating teams for the tournament are as follows:
- University of Sabaragamuwa A
- University of Sabaragamuwa B
- University of Rajarata A
- University of Rajarata B
- Kotelawala Defense University A
- Kotelawala Defense University B
- University of Peradeniya A
- University of Peradeniya B
- Jaffna Invitation
- NSBM A
- NSBM B
- NIBM A
- NIBM B
- BMS
- IIT A
- Auston University
