A match in progress during Dubai Sports Council Football Academies Championship.

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

The Foxes Sport Academy’s Under-14 team and La Liga Valencia’s Under-10 squads made impressive starts as the fifth season of Dubai Sports Council Football Academies Championship kicked off at the weekend at the new Football Centre in Dubai Sports City.

The Foxes, who are based at Amity School in Al Qusais, came bolting out of the blocks to drub La Liga Sevilla 14-0. La Liga Sevilla were at the receiving end in their Under-10 match as well, losing to La Liga Valencia 3-13.

The It’s Just Football (IJF) Academy Under-10 team also started their campaign with a big win, blanking Al Najma Al Zarqaa 12-0. Established by former Masafi Club foreign pro Navid Faridi, Al Najma Al Zarqaa suffered a heavy defeat in their Under-16 opener as well, losing 12-1 against Alliance Football Club.

GC United also scored big in their Under-12 opener, defeating Sporting Dubai 11-1, while hosts La Liga HPC started their Under-14 campaign with an emphatic 9-0 win over La Liga Valencia.

The premier age-group football tournament in the country, Dubai Sports Council Football Academies Championship will top a busy and diverse calendar of Dubai Sports Council’s events for the coming months.

The tournament features 52 teams and more than 850 of the best young talents from 18 academies, who will be competing in six different categories: Under-8, Under-10, Under-12, Under-14, Under-16, Under-18.

A total of 280 matches will be played in the tournament, across 15 weekends until March 6, 2021, at The Football Centre DSC, which opened its doors last month and is the new home of La Liga Academy and La Liga High Performance Centre (HPC).

Later in spring next year, Dubai Sports Council and La Liga will partner once again for the inaugural La Liga U14 International Cup, a tournament that will also be held at The Football Centre DSC and feature six teams from top La Liga clubs, including Barcelona and Real Madrid, six teams from the UAE and six other teams from across the region and the globe.

The partnership between Dubai Sports Council and La Liga will also see two players – a goalkeeper and a striker - from each of the four Dubai clubs - Al Nasr, Al Wasl, Shabab Al Ahli and Hatta -  join the du La Liga HPC summer programme in Spain, where they will raise their level of play in competitive matches against the best La Liga youth clubs.

This long-term partnership between Dubai Sports Council and La Liga also seeks to empower Emirati coaches and national club management teams through professional development training workshops and seminars in the fields of administration, finance, marketing and law. Annually, 20 members from the executive management of Dubai’s football companies will benefit from these programmes.