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Saturday, Apr 19, 2008
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Champion Club football tournament

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Indian Bank will not be there to defend the title nor will seasoned campaigner ICF take part in the Champion Club football tournament which is to be held at the Nehru stadium here from April 20 to May 5.

Briefing newsmen on Friday, the Tamil Nadu Football Association President, C.R. Visswanathan said since Indian Bank was busy with the ongoing I-league second division matches in Guwahati it could not be accommodated into the draw while for ICF the inter-railway competitions had come in the way of its participation.

The tournament features 26 teams, including six CFA senior division sides.

The others were mostly the various district league winners and in some cases the runners-up too.

As per the regulations, the four semifinalists in this tournament play in the state-league and the winner would represent the state in the next national I-league second division (or third division if AIFF launches that).

The TFA Secretary, T.R. Govindarajan, clarified that since Indian Bank was already in the final round of the I-league second division competition it would get an automatic entry to the next season’s second division should it fail to progress to the premier division at Guwahati. As for ICF, he said since it was the No. 2 team of Chennai league it would be considered for the state league as the fifth team.

A regret

Visswanathan viewed with regret that no district had come forward to conduct this premier tournament.

He said Nethaji SC had come forward to provide Rs. 1.5 lakh as sponsorship while COSCO was providing the latest FIFA-approved ‘Platina’ ball (being introduced in India for the first time) in addition to being the co-sponsor.

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