Nothing but football.
The 34th All India Governor’s Cup is all set to kick off in Sikkim from tomorrow. Sikkim Football Association has also devised lottery draws for mini season tickets that will be issued for the matches. Winners have four Bajaj Pulsar bikes up for grabs.
Check out the fixture of the 34th All India Governor’s Cup :
Star Network will rename and re-brand its channels in India from today. As part of re-branding, ESPN will cease to exist in India. ESPN channel will now be Star Sports 4 and ESPN HD will be Star Sports HD2.
On this occasion it was also revealed that Star Sports will invest over 20,000 crore to improve sports coverage in the nation.
“Star has made a commitment of more than Rs 20,000 crore into the sports business. The investment is being used to fuel expansion of sports coverage in the country and to build exciting new leagues, including the Indian Super League in football, the Hockey India League and the Indian Badminton League,” Star Network said in a statement.
Kanchenjunga Stadium in Siliguri will host India’s friendlies scheduled for November.
India will play Philippines on November 15th and Nepal on November 19th. It was reported that these friendlies were scheduled to take place in Chennai. However unavailability of the stadium forced AIFF to move the matches to Siliguri.
Image Courtesy : Madhyamam.com
National Coach Wim Koevermans has announced the national squad of 21 Players for India’s two International Friendlies which are scheduled in November 2013. India first play Philippines on November 15 followed by Nepal on November 19.
The list is as follows:
GOALKEEPERS: Karanjit Singh (Salgaocar SC), Subhashish Roychowdhury (Dempo SC), Arindam Bhattacharya (Churchill Brothers).
DEFENDERS: Denzil Franco (Churchill Brothers), Nicolau Colaco (Salgaocar SC), Arnab Mondal (East Bengal), Aibhorlang Khongjee (Mohun Bagan), Raju Gaikwad (East Bengal), Gurjinder Kumar (Pune FC), Narayan Das (Dempo SC).
MIDFIELDERS: Mehtab Hossain (East Bengal), Lenny Rodrigues (Churchill Brothers), Lalrindika Ralte (East Bengal), Arata Izumi (Pune FC), Francis Fernandes (Salgaocar SC), Clifford Miranda (Dempo SC), CK Vineeth (United SC, Victorino (Sporting Clube de Goa).
FORWARDS: Dawson Fernandes (Sporting Clube de Goa), Sunil Chhetri, Robin Singh (both Bengaluru FC).
STANDBYES: Shilton Paul, Rowilson Rodrigues, Gurwinder Singh, Shouvik Ghosh, Rocus Lamare, Malswamtulunga, Tsewang Karma, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Denson Devdas.
While C.K Vineeth marks a return to the squad, Anas Edathodika from Kerala failed to make the cut. Aiborlang Khonjee, Narayan Das and Victorino Fernandes earns their maiden call up for the national team. Also interesting to note that IMG – Reliance contracted players – Sayed Rahim Nabi, Subrato Paul, Nirmal Chhetri and Gouramangi Singh has been omitted from the team.
Team List Courtesy : AIFF Media
Shillong Lajong today announced its association with McDowell’s No.1 Soda, the largest beverage alcohol franchise in the world as partners for the 2013-14 season. With this partnership Lajong becomes the first Football Club in the country to have 5 top-tier brand partnerships.
The Shillong based club already has telecom major Aircel as its principal sponsor along with Kingfisher and now McDowell’s as associate sponsors. adidas is the official kit sponsor of the club and Kyazoonga.com is the online ticketing partner of Shillong Lajong. This makes Lajong one of the hottest properties as far as Football in India and Sports in general is concerned.
Speaking on the occasion, Larsing M Sawyan, General Secretary, Shillong Lajong Football Club said, “We are proud to tie-up with McDowell’s No 1. The association will help catapult the Club in the big league. There is abundant football talent in the North East. Our dream is to identify budding footballers & leave an indelible mark on the Indian and international Football map.”
According to Alokesh Banerjee, Asst. Vice President-Marketing, United Spirits Limited, “McDowell’s has a long standing association with Football, as the principal sponsor of the McDowell Mohun Bagan club. Our partnership with Lajong FC is yet another step forward towards expanding the brand’s association with football. Lajong FC has emerged as a team of national stature and is one of the most professionally managed private clubs. With their focused & disciplined approach they would definitely create history in the forthcoming I-league season; we are proud to be associated with them & wish them all the very best for the competition.”
McDowell’s No.1 Platinum since its launch has been a very successful brand in the North East and now is proud to join hands with the Biggest Club in the North East.
Shillong Lajong has been one of the most professionally managed club in the country and have constantly embarked on ensuring commercial viability to back its on field success. The clubs home games in Shillong sees record turn-outs and their social media channels constantly engage their fans. They are the 3rd biggest Indian Football Club page on Facebook and have merchandise offerings for their fans.
Kolkata club Mohammedan Sporting has decided to break away from Indian Professional football Clubs Association (IPFCA).
It is reported that after an emergency meeting at Kolkata, IPFCA decided show-cause Mohammedan Sporting. Mohammedan Sporting had earlier signed five IMG – Reliance contracted players.
Irked with IPFCA decision, Mohammedan Sporting has decided to withdraw from IPFCA.“We have decided to withdraw from the IPFCA. We are for the betterment of Indian football, but IPFCA seems to have a different agenda,” Mohammedan Sporting president Sultan Ahmed told TOI.
It was also decided between the other clubs that they will only sign players from the disbanded youth set up Pailan Arrows.
AIFF signed an agreement under Australian Sports Outreach Program (ASOP) with Football Federation of Australia (FFA) to support All India Football Federation’s Grassroots Programme.
The agreement includes financial, administrative and technical support (from FFA) in the form of capacity building within the State Associations currently involved in the Grassroots Programme, Grassroots Courses and Grassroots Festivals, among many such activities.
Read More : Football Federation of Australia signs agreement with AIFF
AIFF released a new logo for the upcoming Federation Cup that will be hosted in Kerala.
United Sikkim replaces Mumbai Tigers in Group D, and the third and fourth placed Teams of last year’s I-league 2nd division – Bhowanipore FC and Langnsing FC will join United Sikkim in Group D.
Image Courtesy : http://www.sportzpower.com/
Reports are coming through that the organizers have now postponed the upcoming Indian Super League to Sept-Nov 2014. Earlier it was decided that the league will pan from Jan to March 2014.
A joint release by AIFF and IMG – Reliance on sunday confirmed the postponement. It is said that to avoid conflicts with I-league schedule, unavailability of stadiums due to Lusofonia games are the reasons for postponement. It is decided that Indian Super League will have a permanent window of September to November starting from year 2014.
We had earlier reported about the ongoing discussions about a football club based in Malappuram, Kerala. Well, the big news is that Malappuram FC is here.
In the second meeting conducted at Malappuram, it was decided to form a professional club operating from Malappuram, the undisputed football capital of Kerala. A coordination committee was formed and Mr. Sathar has been elected as the convener of the committee. The clubs aims to be a part of B division Malappuram League starting 2014. A subsequent meeting on November 10th would decide further matters.
It is easy to stumble upon pages and profiles of various football academies operating in Kerala but not many professional football clubs. Malappuram FC is certainly here to fill that void. Their Facebook Page is garnering all sorts of attention with over 3K likes within two weeks of launch.
Head over there and shower your love by liking the page.
Here is wishing all the best to Malappuram FC!