New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS): Minerva Academy Football Club's project 'Online Learning- A Covid-19 Special Initiative', which was the only project from India to be shortlisted amongst the finalists for the 2020 International Football for Friendship Award, has been awarded 'Best In Category' under the category 'Stadium is Where I Am: Improving Football Skills'.

Football for Friendship, the International Children's Social Program launched by Gazprom, established the first award in the world highlighting virtual initiatives in the field of children's football with an objective to enable the football community to gather the best practices of fostering love for sports and universal human values in youngsters in the era of digital.

Participants from over 100 countries submitted their projects in order to make football accessible to each and everyone regardless of caste, race, gender or religion. Apart from Minerva Academy FC from India, football development institutions from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Russia and Nigeria were in contention for the award.

In accordance with the current pandemic situation, Minerva Academy FC went online and made alterations in the training module just to ensure undeterred learning during the nationwide lockdown.

Director Henna Bajaj, who presented the project before an international panel, said, "The times are changing rapidly and with the pandemic the transition has taken place before anyone could know. People who want to contribute to the game of football must make necessary changes in their approach and exactly that's what we have done with our youth development program at Minerva Academy F.C."

"Our main objective is to ensure each and every player under our youth wing gets to train unperturbed. The gesture from Football for Friendship is only going to encourage us to achieve greater heights," he added.

The finalists and winners were announced on December 9. The winners were announced by Frank Ludolph, Head of Football Education Services, UEFA.