The 7th SALT Youth Football League was officially launched in Battambang on Saturday, with 64 boys and girls teams signed up to feature in U16, U14 and U11 divisions. Games will run until March next year.

The competition is organised by Battambang-based NGO SALT Academy (www.saltacademy.net), which offers football training and leadership lessons to underprivileged children across Battambang, Pailin and Banteay Meanchey provinces.

On Sunday, members of SALT’s renowned team Mighty Girls, which has triumphed in the last three National Women’s Football Championships, held an Inspirit Girls Day in Poipet.

The festival, which included sessions teaching local girls about leadership, life skills and football as well as a dramatisation by the Mighty Girls about life’s hurdles, was sponsored by charity organisation Garden of Hope.

The Mighty Girls had held an Inspirit Girls Day in Battambang on the previous Monday during the Water Festival holiday.

SALT also kicked off their youth leagues in Poipet on Sunday, with matches for U16, U14 and U11 boys teams as well as a competition for girls teams scheduled to play until February.

The start to U16 and U14 boys leagues in Pailin have been delayed until January due to flooding of the football field there.