MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports, with its latest initative towards domectic sports, will be flying five footballers from the Kolkata Police Friendship Football Tournament to Stamford Bridge Stadium and High Bury Stadium UK.

The panel of judges in the tournament selected five players, namely Tapas Dolui, Papu Das, Sanjay Mallick, Tapas Das and Arshad Ali.

According to a media release, the sports channel was one of the sponsors for the tournament held in Kolkatta in July and will be taking the above five players on a guided tour of London's soccer stadiums including Stamford Bridge & High Bury - the home ground of top English Premier League clubs, Chelsea and Arsenal.

ESPN Star Sports VP sales and marketing Sricharan Iyengar, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, says, " Soccer is a craze in Kolkatta, be it International, European or Local and this is ESPN STAR Sports' initiative to present a learning opportunity to upcoming talent from the pool of players in the tournament."

"The five players will have a four day trip where they will undertake a tour to the best of Football stadiums in London and experience practicing sessions of some of the best clubs in football today. This tour will give them a chance to see the facilities on offer, the basics of practice sessions and a chance to meet best talents in world football. " added Iyengar.

The tournament organised by the Kolkata police is an endeavour to reach out to the youth of Kolkata in an informal and friendly manner. The tourn\friendship tournament had generated huge interest in the city with more than 500 teams participating, a significant increase from 461 teams that competed last year.