To foster mass participation in football at the grass-root level, the Bhutan Higher Secondary School Football Championship programme was launched today. The football championship programme is the first of its kind that was jointly implemented by the Bhutan Football Federation (BFF) and Department of Youth and Sports (DYS) under the Ministry of Education.
From this year Bhutan Higher Secondary Schools in the country will compete in a professional tournament organised by the BFF to uplift the standard of sports.
The new tournament is expected to be more competitive and inclusive.
“The objective of Bhutan Higher Secondary School Football Championship programme is basically to enhance the youth football quality in the country and also to enhance the quality of competition in the country. And of course, we are also trying to collaborate with the BFF and proposing to take part in the South Asian High School Championship which will be maybe coming in another two to three years,” said Nima Gyeltshen, the Sports Administrator at the DYS with the Ministry of Education.
The tournament is open to all higher secondary schools across the country however the participation will be optional.
We encourage everyone to take part but it will also depend on their readiness, whether they have the required number of players, whether they have ground, but as of today morning 59 schools have expressed interest and they have already registered with us. The success of this programme will greatly depend on our main partners who are on the field that is the school principal and the school management. They have a great role and we hope they will help us to make our programme successful,” he added.
The football championship programme will be held in three stages. In the first phase, the team will compete at the dzongkhag level, then the winner from the dzongkhag level will compete at a regional level to qualify for the national level.
Choni Dema
