The fourth annual ISF U17 Boys League season 2015, which was launched on July 5th 2015, came to a close on Sunday 13th of September at the National Institute of Education. The league aims to enable disadvantaged Cambodian youths to enjoy competitive football and help offer alternatives to destructive social activities, such as substance abuse.

Some 13 teams from partner organizations, schools and community groups joined the competition. This year saw some new teams joining the league, such as Mercy Teams International (MTI), Komar Pichpov Samnang and Slum Academy. We are thrilled to see these new teams come on board and see their strong commitment to promoting the participation in grassroots football.

The game format and types stayed the same as previous years and almost all FIFA rules, except free substitutions, were applied. In addition, we introduced players’ ID-cards were used to keep track of players’ participation and increase . This also helps to improve the coaches’ refereeing capacity, as they can keep better track of players. Especially the junior and newer coaches said it helped them get more used to judging professional games.

During the round robin competitions, teams pushed themselves to defeat their rivals and reach the semi-finals. They were training harder than ever to get their team well-prepared for the games. The most interesting thing about the round robin games this year was that in both groups A and B, teams played incredibly close matches and the final ranking came down to the very last game.

Following the 8 weeks of tough competitions, the semi-finals took place on September 6th, with two top teams from each group competing for a place in the finals. Slum Academy faced A New Day Cambodia (ANDC) as Komar Pichpov Samnang challenged ILC in the semi-finals. The Academy played better and booked a place for the final after a victory over ANDC while ILC beat Komarpich in a tricky penalty shootout. In the finals, ANDC got its own back by defeating Komarpich to get the third place and first-timers the Academy won the league’s trophy.

To conclude, the U17 League 2015 was another success of the ISF football programme, which continues to give opportunities to Cambodian youths to compete and build more relationships through football participation. The success and value of the programme is apparent in all of the players on and off the pitch, and we’re especially proud that a player from Slum Academy was recently selected for the U16 Boys Cambodia National team!