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Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad leg of 'Reliance Foundation Youth Sports (RFYS) school and college football championship was launched here today by the foundation chairperson Nita Ambani.

This initiative to scout new talent for Indian football was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016 in eight centres across the country, RFYS said in a release.This year, more than 60,000 student footballers of over 4,500 schools and colleges of 30 cities are participating in this national tournament.

"I am excited to launch RFYS in Ahmedabad today for the opening match. In the first year, RFYS reached out to 2 million children through our football initiative. This year, we intend to reach out to another 4 million, taking the total to 6 million," Ambani told reporters during an inaugural match between the students of two institutes.

For Ahmedabad leg, the football championship will have 220 teams vying for the top spots in four categories--Junior Boys, Senior Boys, School Girls and College Boys, the release said.

The city winner of each category will further compete at the western zonal qualifiers against city winners of Mumbai, Pune and Goa. The winners will then play at the national finals to be held in January 2018, it said.

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