16th Ascent Corporate Soccer Cup begins in Dhaka
The 16th Ascent Corporate 5-a-side Soccer Cup kicked off in Dhaka on Thursday (27 July).
This year's competition is once again being held at Ascent Group's subsidiary Scholastica School Uttara Campus. The finals will be played on 5 August, reads a press release.
The 5-A-Side football game is played by eight players in a team with five playing at any given time on the pitch.
This year will be the 16th year running of the tournament – an initiative that was the brainchild of Excalibur Entertainment. It started in 2006 with the idea of creating a platform where corporate executives can tighten team bonding, network with other executives, form friendships, and yes play a little football as well.
This tournament has been dubbed as one of the "largest amateur sporting events" in the country based on the number of teams participating every year. Ascent Corporate Cup participants often talk about how the tournament acts as a catalyst in boosting morale and company loyalty.
The title sponsor, Ascent Group – a leading education-based group of companies in Bangladesh – has been the title sponsor for the last 11 years.
As is the tradition, an exhibition match will be held prior to the finals on 5 August.
This year's exhibition match is titled 'POWER OF SHE', a tagline suggesting that the game of football is no longer a male gender sport and that the female executives too have a playing platform to excel and master the game. Two teams of all female players will engage in a competitive match to show off their mettle and skills on the pitch.