Premier India Football Academy (PIFA) under 15 students from the Elite training entered the finals of the NIKE – Manchester United Premier Cup tournament played at the SESA Academy football ground Goa from 7-10 May 2012.
This was a fantastic result for PIFA considering this was their first appearance as a team in this tournament. Teams representing Kerala, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Goa fought for the West & South zonal title along with last years winner Salgaocar SC.
PIFA Colaba FC, Maharashtra topped their group by beating Youth Club Soccer Academy, Gujarat 4-1, Dunes FC, Goa 3-0 and drew 1-1 with Idukki Football Academy, Kerala. In the Zonal (west & south) semi-finals they beat Narmada FC, Madhya Pradesh 4-0 and in the finals beat defending champions Salgaocar SC 3-0.
In the All India semi finals they beat Idukki Football Academy, Kerala 3-0 PIFA Colaba FC after playing 6 matches in 3 days had to play the finals against a fresh Chandigarh FA side that had only played one match in the last 5 days. The exhausted PIFA Colaba boys conceded 2 goals in the 2nd half of extra time.
CFA were the winners of the North, Northeast and East Zonal leg which was earlier held at the JRD Tata Sports Complex in Jamshedpur and consisted of teams from Assam, Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Orissa, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
TEAM : Tejas, Pritam, Faizaan, Mrunal, Sherwyn, Kshitij, Al-Umair, Sohail, Hemant, Kamlesh, Dheeraj, Sushant, Judon, Prathamesh, Suraj,Thoichan.
Mr Faruk Ahmad (Coach)
Mr Nagesh Swamy (Assistant Coach)
Ms Nivedita Vishwanathan (Physio)
Mr Tejesh Sharma (Manager)
