It was unlike another long day in office for staff of around 15 Chennai-based companies, at the indoor football arena hosting Futbol Sala on Saturday morning.
The teams faced off in short league matches, with their colleagues cheering, for the ‘Foodball for Change’ tournament organised by World Vision India to raise awareness on hunger and malnutrition among children.
“While we occasionally play football, this is the first tournament that my colleagues and I are participating in together. Since it is for a good cause as well, we were enthusiastic to sign up for it,” said Syed Mohammed Abbas from Touch2Success, Chennai.
In all, 17 teams with eight members in each participated.
Many of the participants said they missed the action at the recently concluded FIFA World Cup.
Pramod Gopal, deputy vice-president, HDFC Bank, who was part of their team, said, “Even if our work schedules get in the way, a few of us keep playing football and immensely look forward to tournaments where we can meet players from other companies as well,” he said.
The tournament began with an exhibition match in which a children’s team from the Santhome School for the Deaf and Dumb played against World Vision India’s team. Teams from Merit Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Sundaram Fasteners Limited, Navitas and Tata Consultancy Services were among those who participated.
“The funds raised from the tournament will go towards helping communities we work with to address the issue of malnutrition, especially among children. Initiatives such as the football tournament will lead to our larger ‘Hunger Free campaign, for which a number of similar activities have been planned,” said Betsy Esther of World Vision.