HT GIFA: 446 teams to battle it out for the big prize

After last season’s success, the Hindustan Times Great Indian Football Action (HT GIFA) returns this year as the country’s biggest inter-locality event.

After last season’s success, the Hindustan Times Great Indian Football Action (HT GIFA) returns this year as the country’s biggest inter-locality event.

Gurgaon’s Park View City 2 Dinamoes football team are all set to participate in the 2015 HT GIFA tournament. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

GIFA, a competition consisting of 446 teams drawn from various schools and residential areas of Delhi and NCR, is one of the biggest football events that the city is hosting.

The opening ceremony, held on Sunday, 20 September 2015, was a glitzy affair with more than 15,000 football enthusiasts turning up at the Tau Devilal Stadium in Gurgaon.

The ceremony was high on star power with actors Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson and cricketer Virender Sehwag present. Anchor-actor Manish Paul hosted the event.

What also got the crowd going was the Bollywood fusion mix performed by popular band Astitva, and remixes by DJ Sumit Sethi.

The numbers involved in the tournament are staggering. Here’s a look at some of them:

HT GIFA, a competition consisting of 446 teams drawn from various schools and residential areas of Delhi and NCR, is one of the biggest football events that the city is hosting. (HT Photo/Graphic)

The young boys of Vatika City’s Invincible 7 were crowned champions in the previous edition of the tournament, with Arinjay selected as the star player and Arjun winning the golden boot award for scoring nine goals.