Kolkata, Oct 14 (IANS): Four children trained under the Kolkata Goalz - a global collaborative project between the English Premier League (EPL) and the British Council - will be participating in a football tournament in Belgium to mark the centenary celebrations of the "Christmas truce".
The tournament to be played in Ypres, Belgium, is being organised by the EPL to mark 100 years since British and German soldiers put down their guns and started playing an impromptu game of football in no man's land on Christmas Day, 1914 in Flanders, Belgium.
"Christmas truce" is a term used to describe a series of unofficial cessations of hostilities that occurred along the Western Front during Christmas 1914.
The four participants - Rohid Hussain, Sneha Singh, Jhuma Samaddar and Abdul Arbaz later were introduced to British Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Sajid Javid who during the day launched a community football development programme for girls in the city.
Speaking on the occasion Javid said football can play a big role in cultural exchanges between India and Britain.
Astonished to see the immense popularity of English football clubs in India, Javid assured of increased collaborative efforts by the EPL in India.
"There are 90 million EPL fans in India which is twice as many in England. I have been seeing people across sporting Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United jerseys. Sports go to the heart of any country's culture and football is very popular in India. Having sporting engagement between countries is very important," said Javid who also expressed happiness over the Indian Super League (ISL) - India's biggest football extravaganza which was inaugurated Oct 12.
"We already have the EPL involvement through the Goalz project and we are looking for more ways to increase their engagement," said Javid when asked about the probability of EPL collaborating with the ISL.
Started July 2011 for children aged 12 to 18, the Kolkata Goalz is also supported by the city police, nine Kolkata Premier League clubs, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and Indian Football Association (IFA).