Standard Chartered announced the launch of its “Standard Chartered Karachi United Youth League” as part of its community service mandate to promote sports amongst children. This is the fourth time in a row that the Bank is sponsoring the league.
The objective of the “Standard Chartered Karachi United Youth League” is to provide a platform for Youth football teams from across the underserved areas of Karachi to come together, break barriers and inculcate the spirit and culture of sport and competition.
In the last three years, the Standard Chartered KU Youth League has had over 2600 beneficiaries including boys and girls. There were multiple case studies that were published and amplified through social media of how the competition enabled many examples of team work, volunteerism in the community, leadership and new friendships across communities and children that generally do not interact with each other.
This year’s league will see five boys’ competitions in the following age categories: Under 10 years, Under 12 years, Under 14 years and Under 16 years including a Government School competition. The format is that of a group system from which the top teams qualify directly for the quarter-finals and beyond. The Standard Chartered KU Youth League will also increase girls participation (through a Girls tournament) this year to 120 girls.
This year’s competition will see a total of 1000+ boys and girls from across Karachi participate in matches. In order to increase the standard of the league, official referees and match commissioners have been appointed for every match.
A total of 199 matches will be played in six different locations including Old Golimar, Shireen Jinnah, Malir, Baldia, Ibrahim Hyderi and Orangi Town, which promises to attract football fans from all over Karachi.
Commenting on the sponsorship, Mr. Rehan Shaikh, Chief Executive Officer, Standard Chartered Pakistan said, “Standard Chartered is proud to partner for the fourth year with Karachi United to bring to you the “SC KU Youth League”.
In line with our brand promise Here for good, it is a unique event spread over a couple of months which aims to bring underserved communities together. We hope that through Football we can bring a positive social benefit to our society.
In the last three years more than 2600 children went through the SC KU league experience which was not only restricted to Football, but also included coaching in life skills, team work and other areas.
Standard Chartered has a long association with football and we are proud to be leading such a transformational initiative with Karachi United in the country.”
Imran Ali, CEO, Karachi United said: “The league is a ray of light and an extremely exciting platform for young players across our Community Centers – especially given the challenges over the last year. Additionally, we are very proud of our partnership with Standard Chartered as we have moved further and are now focusing on coaches development – as witnessed by the investment in the LFC Train the Trainer workshop. We are confident this will improve standards of coaching and football across Karachi along with building better communities”.