Kerala – Page 4 – Football News India

Kerala to kick start beach football league

October 11, 2014 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

Kerala Football association along with Kochi based ESA media will organise the state’s first professional beach football league in Kozhikode in May 2015. Christened Kerala Beach League, the first of its kind league in the state will feature five teams, from Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Kozhikode, Malappuram and Kannur in the first season. There will be a Men’s league and women’s league.

The logo of the tournament was unveiled in Kochi by Kerala Football Association president K. M. A. Mather and ESA Media CEO J. B. Mathews on Friday. The league which is modeled on the Indian Super league will be feature five franchises in the first season. A team will consist of ten players with three foreigners allowed in each team. The five-a-side matches will be of 40 minutes duration.

KFA president K.M.A Mather who unveiled the logo of the league said that Kerala Beach League is the country’s first professional beach league and is an effort to keep state’s football calendar packed with action for a major part of the year.

Kerala home to the only FIFA 2-Star certified football field in India

September 22, 2014 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

According to a press note from Great Sports Infra and the wikipedia, Thrissur in Kerala is home to the only football field in India to currently have a FIFA 2-Star certification – the highest rating for artificial turf from FIFA. Kerala has waited far too long for an artificial turf installation. FIFA assisted artificial pitches were being laid across India but some how Kerala kept missing its chances.

Kerala football fraternity is generally elated as Indian Super League team Kerala Blasters have set up the stadium as its training base and a recent friendly with Kerala Police drew a decent crowd.

Press Note from Great Sports Infra : –

The Corporation Stadium in Thrissur, Kerala becomes the only Football field in India to currently have a FIFA 2-Star certification – the highest rating for artificial turf from FIFA. This world-class Football field was conceptualized and planned by the Kerala Government for the upcoming 35^thNational Games to be held from January, 15^th, 2015.

The synthetic turf was imported from the world leader in artificial grass, FieldTurf, USA. This project was meticulously planned, designed, engineered and installed by Great Sports Infra Pvt. Ltd – FieldTurf’s exclusive licensee for Southeast Asia.

The FIFA recommended 2-Star certification is issued after a series of both on-site and lab tests conducted by a FIFA approved laboratory. The on-field tests included vertical ball rebound, angled ball rebound, ball roll, shock absorption, rotational resistance, linear friction and deformation, while the product’s composition and resilience were tested with special equipment in the lab.

“We thank the National Games Secretariat for giving us this opportunity to be part of this prestigious national event. This is one of 5 projects – including two IAAF standard athletic tracks, FIH standard Hockey field and Futsal field – that we are executing for the National Games.” says GSI Managing Director, Mr. Anil Kumar.

“Passing a FIFA 2-Star test is a true testimony to FieldTurf system’s quality, performance and durability. And we complement this with our vast experience and engineering skills in executing these projects as per world-class standards. It’s also good to know that Kerala Blasters (Kochi’s Franchise) for the maiden Indian Super League have set-up their training base at Corporation Stadium, Thrissur.” says GSI Director of Operations, Lt. Col. John K John.

Great Sports Infra has, to date, installed over 100 sports fields in India, including over 15 FIFA standard Football fields, FIH approved hockey fields, IAAF certified athletic tracks, and several indoor & outdoor sports facilities for the government, defence, educational institutions, corporate campuses, residential societies & training academies.

Bad day in the media for Indian Super League?

September 15, 2014 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

Indian Super League had a bad field day in the press yesterday.

A news piece that appeared on Livemint did not cut a good picture.

The article talks about IMG-R and Star’s difficulty in finding suitable associate sponsors for the league. Indian Super league had earlier announced Hero MotoCorp Ltd as the title sponsor. It was also mentioned that team sponsorships were equally hard to come by. Average advert rates for the front of the players’ jersey is Rs.5 crore, the back costs Rs.3 crore and each sleeve is priced at Rs.1-1.5 crore according to the article.

The second one should concern the franchise owners. An article in www.afaqs.com talks about how the franchise owners might suffer because unlike IPL in which a Dollar-Rupee ratio cap is existing, ISL has no such measures. The article claims that exchange rate fluctuations could result in 10% variation in the pay outs for foreign players and thereby escalating costs for the franchises. Such financial strain for franchises in the very early stages of the league might not bode well for its future. Read the article here.

Well, before this is wound up it has to be mentioned that Indian Super League sort of papered over all these cracks by the end of the day when the signing of former French International Nicolas Anelka was announced by the Mumbai franchise.

Kerala Plans to Conduct the AFC Grassroots Day in a Grand Way

May 14, 2014 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is celebrating the 2nd ‘AFC Grassroots Day’ on the 15 May, 2014 . The purpose and objective of the celebration is to ensure awareness of the necessity of Grassroots activities with a vision for tomorrow with effective foundation of football.

Reports suggest that around 480 kids aged between 6 and 12 will participate in football festivals conducted across 7 centers in Kerala. In Thiruvanthapuram, the festival will be conducted in Kovalam and it is expected that Kovalam FC will be playing a major role in the festival there. Kollam District Football Academy, Alappuzha Santos FA, Unity Soccer in Idukki, Maradu FA in Ernakulam, Nilambur United FC in Malappuram, Wayanad United F.A are the other centers that will be hosting the festival in Kerala.

Update : Two more venues will be hosting the AFC Grassroots day today in Kerala. In kozhikode, the Calicut Coaches Club along with KDFA will be conducting a football festival. It also reported that a similar fest will take place in Pathanamthitta too.

New Club on the block – Jaithra Kerala of SEPT!

May 5, 2014 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

Club Logo

We had earlier reported that Sports Education and Promotion Trust [SEPT], the Kerala based football academy will be unveiling their professional club on May 4th in Kozhikode. In a gala function that took place yesterday in Mananchira Maidhan, SEPT unveiled their professional club named Jaithra Kerala and the club logo.

SEPT, Jaithra Kerala, Football, Academy, Kerala, Soccer, Indianfootball, Sports, Kozhikode, Mananchira, Arun Nanu, India, Malabar

Club Launch

Jaithra Kerala will function under SEPT Sports and Entertainment Pvt Ltd. The club is aiming for an I-league slot in the next four years. The current trend in Kerala football is forming clubs with active particpation of communities. SEPT is also duly following the model. SEPT is rolling out membership and has manged to rake in a good number of supporters for their effort. It is being reported that anyone can secure a membership by paying INR 1800.

SEPT has drafted in players from their U-17 academy for the club. With over 50 active football coaching centers across the Kerala, SEPT is planning to use these centers as the catchment area to select footballers to the club. It is also said that talented players outside the centers would also be drafted into the club through a selection process.

In the 10th year of existence, the formation of a professional club is a massive step forward for SEPT. By this SEPT also becomes the first football academy in Kerala to graduate to a full professional set up. Their vast experience is training and coaching youngsters across the state would hold in good stead for their progress. SEPT players are the main stay of all the age group teams from Kerala and around five SEPT players have represented Indian age group teams. SEPT is also planning to commence operations of two residential academies in Kerala.

Here is the Facebook Page of Jaithra Kerala, Go ahead and Like them!

Post by Jaithra Kerala.

Kerala based SEPT to unveil Professional Football Club on May 4th

April 23, 2014 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

We had earlier reported that Kerala based Sports Education and Promotion Trust [SEPT] will be launching a professional football club. It is official that SEPT will be unveiling their professional football club on May 4th in Kozhikode.

Kerala Premier League to kick-off on March 15th

March 6, 2014 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

Media reports suggest that the first edition of Kerala Premier League will kick-off on March 15th. Twelve teams from the state will take part in the tournament that will be conducted in two stages. Kottayam and Malappuram will host these stages.

AG’s office, KSEB, Kerala Police, Eagles FC and Cochin Port trust will compete in the kottayam stage and Titanium, SBT, Central Excise and Goldent Threads in the Manjeri stage.

The report also mentions that the winners of state inter-district U-21 Football Tournament will be given a direct entry into KPL. Top two slots from another qualifying round of matches starting on March 10th will complete the line-up of KPL.

Kerala based SEPT to form a professional club

March 1, 2014 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

SEPT, the Kerala based academy that trains around 2000 kids all over Kerala through their 17 centers across the state is planning to form a professional club.

With this the SEPT trust will transform into a company that field teams in the professional leagues of the country. SEPT, involved in grassroots football development for over a decade has the necessary background to graduate their efforts to a professional club.

SEPT recently signed a collaboration agreement with the UAE club Al-Ahli. They have already fielded a team in Kozhikode “E” Division league in 2014 and are the winners, there by earning a promotion to the “D” division. A website has gone live and we get to know that ONGC and Faizal & Shabana Foundation are the sponsors of the club.

More news in the coming days….

AIFF’s Player Registration Mechanism will Kick-in from Next Season

February 15, 2014 footballnewsindia Leave a comment

If reports in Malayalam media is anything to go by, AIFF’s controversial player registration scheme will kick-in from next season.

It is reported that Kerala Football Association has notified state clubs to register their players through an online system. Clubs will have shell out 100 INR for each player they are registering. The new system allows clubs to register as many players as they want. Clubs can also register Sub-Junior players as part of the new system. Currently a club can only register 30 players.

Kerala Football Association will also conduct workshops in each district to create awareness on the new system that will be kicking in from next season. Player registration scheme from AIFF had earlier received flak from state associations and there was resistance from the associations to implement the scheme. The reduction of registration fee from what was touted earlier is to be seen as a move to placate the state associations.

Depending upon a grading system, clubs will have to shell out money to register their players. I-league clubs will have to shell out 10,000 INR for Indian players and 15,000 INR for foreign players.

While this a good initiative from AIFF as the registration system would allow them to create a database of active footballers across the nation, it should also be kept in mind that remuneration for a match in many of the district leagues would be as low as the registration fee that is being currently implemented.

Kolkata’s United SC Seeking Investment from Kerala

February 14, 2014 footballnewsindia

Cash strapped United SC is planning to divest shares and is looking for potential suitors from Kerala, reports Malayalam media.

United SC official Nabab Bhattacharya is quoted in Malayala Manorama saying that maintaining a foreign coach and foreign players for the last six months without any sponsors has hurt the club massively and hence they are planning to divest shares. Nabab also said that even though there are many footballers in Kerala with some playing in I-league, the state do not have a club representation in the national league. This is also a factor in seeking avenues from Kerala.

C.K Vineeth who is currently on loan to Bengaluru FC and K. Asif were the Malayali players in United SC. Dutch coach Eelco Schattorie quit the club earlier due to financial constraints and reports have surfaced today that their star Nigerian striker Ranti Martins will be moving to the Shillong outfit Rangdajied United on loan.

The move to seek investors from Kerala could be a last ditch effort to save the sinking club. We will have to wait and watch if any investors from kerala would come and rescue this reasonably successful and established club from Kolkata. If that happens would the club move to Kerala lock, stock and barrel? We will soon find answers.

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