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The Legends Cup is back and has returned in a new form that is bigger and better. This is the first time the Cup has gone National with tournaments being held in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi. The winners of the tournament will travel to Delhi and take part in the grand final with the Champion winning the Grand Prize of a trip to the Capital of London.
The Cup starts off in Bengaluru where a massive 37 clubs have registered themselves for the premier tournament. The organizers have also arranged a women’s tournament to empower girls to play the sport they love. They have been able to attract four Women’s teams for the tournament as well.
The tournament starts with the a Captains meeting where all the team captains are invited to explain the tournament rules and allowing the captains to pick the teams out of the hat for the draws. The organizers concentrate on getting the players involved in the process so that they can make a day out of it.
The tournament focuses on the sport as such every participant is a winner in the two-day qualifier. At the end of play on day one, teams will be divided into four categories, The Legends Cup, Champions Cup, Elite Cup and the Challengers Cup.
The tournament format is very interesting as eleven groups were made for the men’s draw, with three teams in each group. Five of the group winners will get direct entry into the Legends Cup based on the points, goal difference, goals scored respectively. The remaining six will take part in the a knockout to qualify for the place in the Legends Cup Qualifiers.
The teams will then play in their respective Cups to be named the Champion. The winners get exceptional goodies like the from the sponsors such as Adidas. The winners of the Legends Cup will they travel to Delhi to play the winners from different cities and winner will enjoy the trip to London.
The Women’s event will take place on Sunday where the four teams will play two matches in the tournament. The teams will take part in three matches wherein they will play two matches against one team with the winner, who will be decided on the basis of aggregate score moves on to the final.
This is the first time I have seen so many sponsors in one tournament: Seimens’ manager
“The tournament has a very different format to the one we usually see in corporate events. Usually, all the group winner go through to the next round. It’s different here, but we are looking forwards to the competition. That makes it more exciting and nervous,” exclaimed Rahul who plays his football for Accenture in Bengaluru.
Shashi Kiran Seimens who has been playing corporate tournaments for over a decade now said, “Its a very innovative way of organising things and this is the first time I have seen so many sponsors in one tournament.”
Adherent Chelsea fan Anushka was excited about the tournament saying that the Legends Cup organizers seemed to be interested in popularising Football in general in the country which was very different from other events she has participated in.
She said, “They are encouraging the sport a lot, which I find very different tournaments. Aditi Chauhan has given a big boost for Women's Football in India and tournaments like these give players platforms for players to come up. Being a corporate tournament, I think having something like this on the weekend is absolutely brilliant.”
