Nothing but football.
League India Football Experience (LIFE) is an initiative by Network 18 for college students. Here is a video which charts out the plans from Network 18. It also includes snippets from former India Striker Abhishek Yadav and Former Indian Captain Shangmugham venkatesh.
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.
O Jogo Bonito aka OJB is India’s biggest amateur football league promoted by Bulldog Sports Ventures. Football tournaments are conducted every quarter in a calendar year. The players of this tourney comprise of working professionals, students, businessmen who are united for the common cause of football.
After two successful seasons of OJBm the 
third edition took place in the last week of February 2014. It was bigger than ever with close to 180 registered players 12 teams battling it out for glory in the “Flood Lit Stadium” experience .
Here are few pictures from the tournament that took place in Kochi.
SEPT, t
he 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….
18th February 2014: Zamorin’s Football Ground was the host for IFB Boca Football Champs in Kozhikode as India’s latest football development project reached down south looking for India’s next Diego Maradona.
Kerala known not only for its serene beauty and culture it is also a dominant force in Indian football thanks to few of the great National level footballers hailing from the same region. Talent was evident as Kozhikode exhibited some amazing show of football skills and prowess over the last two days.
Malabar Special Police Higher Secondary School of Malapuram emerged as Champions of 
the school leg as they beat Farook High School in an evenly contest final match held at the Zamorin’s ground in association with Kozhikode Football Association.
MSP High School’s young goalkeeper Deepu Benny was adjudged as the Most Promising player of the School leg of Kozhikode while his team mates Jishnu Balakrishnan and Abhijit EM was selected to attend the coaching camp to be conducted by coaches from Boca Juniors of Argentina.
In the College leg of the event MES College Mampad got better of a strong NSS College 
Manjeri to claim the title of Kozhikode Champions of the IFB Boca Juniors Football Champs. Mohammed Safwein of MES College Manjeri was adjudged as the Most Promising player of the college leg.
Meanwhile Subhitlal K of Zamorin Guruvayurapan College and Harif P of MES College Mampad has been shortlisted as those talented boys from the college leg who would get a chance to attend coaching sessions by Boca Juniors coaches from Argentina.
MSP Mallapuram and MES College Mampad will now represent the football crazy city of Kozhikode in the national finals to be held later this year in Goa where they will fight against other region champions.
Mr. T Rajkumar, Business Head of IFB Industries Ltd along with Former India International from Kozhikode Mr. Premnath Philips were present to encourage the young winners by giving away the trophies and medals during the presentation ceremony.
IFB Boca Juniors Football Champs will next travel to Shillong to conduct the regional leg before starting off the National finals in Goa.
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.
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.
According to reports in Malayalam media, Kerala Football Association is all set to tie up with British Council and Premier League. Premier League and British Council representatives will conduct talks with Kerala FA starting on February 14th.
This alliance will pave way towards social commitments through football says KFA. Premier League London International development manager Kate Hodgkinson, British Council representative Sophie Patterson, Society of India British Council head Dr. Guru Gujral will conduct talks with Kerala Football Association on this regard.
Representatives from British Council and Premier League will also visit Janaseva Sishu Bhavan, Aluva FA, Maradu FA and FA Kochi as part of this engagement. This tie-up will enable Kerala FA to seek assistance from coaches from Britain to train players and coaches in Kerala. British Council’s programmes will be utilized to help financial backward children in the state.
Kerala based football academy SEPT signs landmark agreement with UAE Club Al Ahli SC. SEPT is a byword in Kerala football now. Started in 2004, SEPT now trains around 2000 budding footballers across the state. Take any age-group Kerala team, it is assured that SEPT cadres form a major part of them.
As part of the agreement it is understood that Al Ahli SC will open up their world class training facility and trainers for SEPT kids. In turn, Al Ahli is hoping to tap in to the large swathe of Indian diaspora in UAE. According to reports it is said that after the U-17 World Cup that took place in UAE, Al Ahli noticed the vast number of Indian supporters that turned up for the matches and issued notices in Malayalam media in UAE urging fans to turn for Al Ahli’s matches as well.
The partnership between SEPT was signed today between SEPT UAE coordinator Shanavas 
CKP and Ahmed Khalifah Hammed (CEO, Al Ahli Club) during a press conference at the Al Ahli Club Media Centre.
Al Ahli is a leading club in the middle-east and has been attracting top players from middle-east and Europe off late.
Two girls from Kerala has been selected for India U-14 Football Camp. Aparana Roy from St. Josephs School in Pulloorampara, kozhikode and M. Athira from C.B Higher Secondary School Vallikkunu, Malappuram are selected for the camp.
Aparna is also a gold medal winner in 80 Meter hurdles at the recently concluded School Atheltics meet in Ranchi. She trains with the SEPT center in Koodarinji.
However we are bit late on catching up the news. The camp has already got over in Thiruvananthapuram according to this news piece.