:dateline:Commemorated to the 550th Parkash Purab of Guru Nanak Sahib, a tournament for the first Sikh Football Cup is going to begin today in Amritsar with an opening match between the teams of Amritsar and Faridkot at the Khalsa College’s ground. This is a joint initiative of the Global Sikh Sports Federation and Khalsa Football Club.
Harjeet Singh Grewal, who heads the Khalsa Football Club, informed that this tournament is being organized with a motive to encourage youths towards Sikhi Saroop. “Around 460 Sikh players having untrimmed hairs in the age group of 17-21 years will represent 23 districts, including Chandigarh,” he added.
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It is learnt that the Mool Mantar will be recited five times and Ardas will be performed before the tournament. Gatka will be performed to cheer up the players and crowd during the break and on scoring goal.
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Harjeet Singh Grewal said that they want to break the perception that it is difficult to practice sports with untrimmed hairs.
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“The results we got on searching for Sikh players with untrimmed hairs shocked us in Doaba zone where we could find only 80-85 players,” he said while adding that they got 250 such players in Amritsar and Tarn Taran area.
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He revealed that the winning team would be honored with cash reward of INR 5,00,000/- while the runner-up team will be get cash reward of INR 3,00,000/-. Beside it, the coaches of winner and runner-up teams will also be given cash rewards of INR 51,000 and INR 31,000, respectively.
