DUSHANBE, May 23, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- Tajik young soccer players have won the Russian open football tournament among orphanages and boarding schools, finishing first in the junior age group.

Sherali Davlatov, Secretary General of Tajikistan’s Football Federation (TFF), says twenty-two teams from Russia and the CIS nations, including two teams from Tajikistan, participated in the tournament that took place in the Russian city of Sochi last week.

According to him, the tournament was held in two age groups under the motto of “The Future Depends on You.”

“In the junior age group, young soccer players of the boarding school from Khatlon’s Rumi district, Tajikistan and the boarding school named after D. Chagayev from Kaldakhuar, Abkhazia competed for the first place.  Tajik young soccer players won the game 1-0,” said Davlatov, “In the senior age group, boarding school # 3 from the Russian city of Penza won the first place, defeating the boarding school from Nizhny Novgorod, Russia in final.  Tajik team that participated in the senior age group won bronze medals, finishing third.”

In addition to the tournament cups, the soccer teams from the Rumi boarding school and the Penza boarding school have also received a luxurious present – in autumn, they will go on visit to the London FC Arsenal, the TFF secretary general said.