Mumbai Football: MSSA's poor scheduling hurting kids

St Paul's skipper Atharva Rewale controls the ball. Pic/Bipin Kokate

Playing back-to-back matches within 18 hours, the players of St Paul's (Dadar) looked low on energy, but still managed to pull off a 1-0 win against Vibgyor HS (Goregaon) in a boys' U-14 Div-II pre-quarter-final of the Mumbai Schools Sports Association-organised inter-school football tournament at Azad Maidan yesterday.

The Dadar school boys, who were vibrant and dominant in their 3-0 win against St Lawrence (Borivli) on Tuesday evening (3pm), were unable to produce the same intensity and were evidently slow yesterday. Skipper Atharva Rewale beat Vibgyor goalkeeper Arav Diwan with a scorching pile-driver from inside the box in the 13th minute for the winner.

Before the start of the match, Vibgyor coach Syed Yasin said he was unhappy with the scheduling. "Sebastian Fernandes [MSSA football secretary] informed me about our game only yesterday [Tuesday] at 12.20pm. I requested him to send me a message as I had to inform our principal. He sent me a WhatsApp today at 7.30am, when our match is at 10am, Our team had no time to prepare for the match. If we would have refuse to play, MSSA would have given our opponents a walkover. This has happened to our school in the past," Yasin added.

The parents of St Paul's players were upset too. "It's unfair to make children play matches without sufficient rest," said a mother of one of the St Paul's players. Sebastian did not answer calls and text messages.

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