The Hindu : Sport / Football : All-India police football meet from tomorrow

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Friday, Feb 04, 2005

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Sport - Football

All-India police football meet from tomorrow

By Our Sports Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 3. Thirty-two teams, including last year's winner Border Security Force and runner-up Punjab, will take part in the 53rd B.N. Mullik memorial all-India police football championship to be held here from February 5 to 13.

Giving details of the tournament at a press conference on Thursday, the Kerala Director General of Police, Raman Srivastava, said the teams have been divided into the six clusters for the preliminary league. The league matches to be held from February 5 to 9 will be conducted at the Chandrasekharan Nair stadium, Central stadium, University stadium and the LNCPE ground in Kariyavattom.

The pre-quarterfinals have been fixed for February 10, the quarterfinals on February 11, the semifinals on February 12 and the final on February 13. Chandrasekharan Nair stadium will be the venue for both the semifinals and the final. BSF and Punjab have been directly seeded into the quarterfinals.

As part of the championship, arrangements have also been completed for the conduct of three seminars. The theme for these seminars on February 10 and 11would be `Development of football in the country' and `The contribution of police to the field of sports and games in India' respectively. The seminar on February 12 would be entirely devoted to the technical aspects on football. The seminars would be held at the newly completed auditorium at the Chandrasekharan Nair stadium and these would preceded by a 45-minute video film show on football on all the three days.

The Finance Minister, Vakkom B. Purushothaman, would be the chief guest at the opening ceremony on February 5.

The groupings: Cluster I: Assam, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Sikkim. Cluster II: Haryana, Uttar Praddesh, Railway Protection Force, Nagaland and Andaman & Nicobar. Cluster III: Karnataka, Bihar, Delhi, CRPF and Chandigarh. Cluster IV: Maharashtra, Tripura, Bengal, Jharkand and SSB. Cluster V: Mizoram, Rajasthan, Assam Rifles, Orissa and Goa. Cluster VI: Kerala, Pondicherry, Uttranchal, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.