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Over 2300 young registered footballers from 160 teams around Fiji will be competing in the under-9, 11, 13, and 15 categories of the McDonald’s Talent Development League this year.

The initiative will be launched at Suva’s Albert Park tomorrow which is part of Fiji Football Association’s five-year strategic plan focusing on youth development.

It was piloted last year and is part of a bid to raise footballing standards in the country

Fiji is one of only eight countries chosen by the FIFA Talent Development Scheme to pilot the project due to its sound development strategy and plans for youth development.

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The league will run for 20 weeks and will feature the nation’s top youth teams across four age groups from under 9 to 15.

Fiji FA Technical Director Timo Jankowski says the league will establish the base to nurture and build a stronger squad for the national team in the coming years.

“It’s the first time where young children can now access to very good training methods but also the game format for example the U9 play 5v5,U11 and U13 8v8 because its proven the players will have more contacts, they will score more goals, more dribbling though they learn to play the game in a much better way because also the game formats are adapted.”

The Youth Development League will be launched at 10am tomorrow by the Minister for Education, McDonald’s director, Bula Boys captain Roy Krishna and OFC Talent Development specialist Phill Parker.

More than 200 players from Suva, Rewa, and Navua will participate in the competition tomorrow at Albert Park in Suva.

Meanwhile, there’ll be one Digicel Fiji Premier League game tomorrow with Labasa hosting Nadroga at 1:30pm at Subrail Park.

However, there’re three games on Sunday which includes Rewa and Tavua at the Fiji FA Academy ground in Ba, Navua battling Lautoka at 3pm at the Uprising Sports Centre and at Prince Charles Park, Nadi faces Tailevu Naitasiri at 3pm.

You can listen to the live commentary of the Nadi and Tailevu Naitasiri clash on Mirchi FM.