The Premier League and Hero Indian Super League's (Hero ISL) collaborative efforts in running youth football tournaments, including the exchange of ideas, culture, knowledge and skillsets have been, for the past six years, the driving force behind football development in India at grassroots level. Starting from February 24, the next chapter of the productive ongoing partnership will be scripted, with the Next Generation Mumbai Cup youth tournament and accompanying coaching workshops.

The tournament will see three Premier League Under-14 sides – Chelsea FC, Manchester United FC and Southampton FC - travel to India for the first time to play against three Under-15 Indian Youth sides - Bengaluru FC, FC Goa and the Reliance Foundation Young Champs (RFYC) academy. The competitive tournament is part of a week of activities dedicated to youth player development as part of the Premier League’s ongoing partnership with the Hero ISL.

Representatives from the Premier League, Chelsea FC, Manchester United FC and Southampton FC will work with 75 Hero ISL coaches, local coaches and referees from across India to lead workshops, offer training and run development forums to share knowledge and experiences that will encourage further football initiatives in the country.

The Next Generation Mumbai Cup matches begin on Monday, February 24, whilst the coaching workshops will run from Tuesday February 25. An introductory session, in the afternoon, involving representatives of all three Premier League sides will get the ball rolling. The session will feature coaches from Chelsea, Manchester United and Southampton discussing their core objectives for the week, where they will outline their tailored approaches for best supporting their players. This workshop is aimed at giving the attending Hero ISL coaches ideas that they can use with players in their own academies.

In the evening, the Manchester United coaches will lead a Hero ISL Coaches Observation session at the second round of Next Generation fixtures, focusing on the Principals of Play (key moments of the game). This session will incorporate staff pre-meetings, tasks for the Hero ISL coaches to complete during the match and post-game reviews.

On the morning of Wednesday 26 February, all of the Hero ISL coaches will take part in a workshop led by Manchester United staff. The afternoon session will be led by Southampton FC coach Danny Maye, who will illustrate how their club academy use ILPs to support the development of their players. Wrapping things up for the day will be the Matchday 3 Fixtures Hero ISL Coaches Observation session conducted by the Chelsea coaching staff.

Thursday February 27’s coaching activity will see representatives from all three Premier League clubs run a session which explains how coaches can work together as a Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) to support the holistic development of players.

On the final day of the Next Generation Mumbai Cup, Friday February 28, two workshops will be conducted. The morning coaching workshop will be led by the Chelsea FC staff before Southampton FC personnel take charge for the final session of Matchday Observation session. This segment will involve the Southampton FC staff explaining how they go about assessing team targets. The Hero ISL coaches will be asked to assess their own team’s targets based on their learnings during Next Generation Mumbai Cup games and will complete a pre-brief module, a match task and a de-brief after the game.