Socca is rapidly becoming the fastest growing sport in the world, and it is celebrating another wonderful expansion in Pakistan, after the world’s major player announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Roots Millennium Education to organise football leagues for their students.
And the growth that was announced this week could see young hopefuls get all the way to the World Cup.
Leisure Leagues will now run leagues for the students at the schools, with the aim of improving the health of the nation, but also to see the youngsters stepping up to the very top and pulling on the green shirt of their country.
It is another boost for football in Pakistan, after their wonderfully improved showing in the World Cup. That goal-filled run culminated in them knocking out World Champions, Germany and moving up the World Rankings to 26th in the World.
Their Leisure Leagues network is thriving too, with more than 10,000 players playing in 77 cities.
Now, the students will be amongst the hopefuls who are looking to progress from that system to play for Pakistan at future World events.
Roots Millennium Education is one of the most prestigious institutes of the country and has a nationwide presence of schools, colleges and universities with over 18,000 students and 50 campuses.
They are the latest in the long line of expansions for Leisure Leagues since they launched in a blaze of publicity, as a string of star players, including Ronaldinho and Ryan Giggs, took on local players as packed stadiums watched the games.
The new move was announced at a ceremony attended by top tier leadership of both institutions including Munir Trunkwala, the Managing Director of World Group, owned by the Trunkwala Family – one of the major driving forces in world 6 a side football – since 1912 and Roots Millennium Education CEO Faisal Mushtaq. Leisure Leagues COO Ishaq Shah and Roots Millennium Education Director Communications Sabina Zakir.