Wednesday, July 25, 2012

EFLI Season started (updated with new schedule)

The season one of EFLI [Elite Football League of India] 2012/13 will be held for a whole month in the Sugathadasa Stadium from July 25 to August 25 with the participation of eight teams that include players from three different Countries (India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka).

The tournament will go for seven weeks with the league format while the semi finals will be held on August 19 followed by the finals on 25.

Team to participate are, Bangalore Warhawks (Bangalore, Karnataka) Mumbai Gladiators (Mumbai, Maharashtra) Kandy Skykings (Kandy, Central Province) Pune Marathas (Pune ,Balewadi, Maharashtra) Kolkata Vipers (Kolkata, West Bengal) Delhi Defenders (Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi) Peshawar Wolfpack (Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ) Colombo Lions (Colombo, Western Province) Team Coaches from their respective Countries and the Coaches and Match Officials from USA have been actively engaged in training and preparations for the last few days.
The EFLI twitter feed also said the games were being played and has pictures from the final practices.

However, no word on scores from any of the games. I'll keep you posted if I track down any further information about them.

UPDATE: From The Island's article American Football fever hits Sri Lanka
Originally, the first season was scheduled to be hosted by India in November 2012, but Tausif Sheikh, Director-EFLI, India, said that they settled on Sri Lanka because of the cost-effective factor, since it was the first tournament of its kind. Carlton Sports Network will telecast the matches in Sri Lanka, while Ten Sports is the global provider.

Both Carleton Sports network and Ten Sports have live streams of some of their programming, but I can't make heads or tails out of it yet. who knows, maybe we will be able to see a game or two.

The article also had their new schedule:

Week 1 - July 25

Pakistan vs Bangalore
Delhi vs Pune
Kolkata vs Kandy
Colombo vs Mumbai

Week 2 - July 30

Kolkata vs Pune
Mumbai vs Pakistan
Colombo vs Bangalore
Kandy vs Delhi

Week 3 - August 2

Pune vs Bangalore
Colombo vs Kolkata
Delhi vs Pakistan
Mumbai vs Kandy

Week 4 - August 5

Mumbai vs Kolkata
Delhi vs Bangalore
Colombo vs Kandy
Pune vs Pakistan

Week 5 - August 9

Mumbai vs Pune
Kolkata vs Pakistan
Kandy vs Bangalore
Colombo vs Delhi

Week 6 - August 12

Colombo vs Pakistan
Mumbai vs Bangalore
Kandy vs Pune
Kolkata vs Delhi

Week 7 - August 15

Kolkata vs Bangalore
Colombo vs Pune
Mumbai vs Delhi
Kandy vs Pakistan

Semi-finals - August 19

Final - August 25

(Note: The time slots for the matches in the first round are 1.00 pm, 3.00 pm, 5.00 pm and 8.00 pm. The matches will start at these times in the respective order given in the schedule)

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