The Hindu : Kerala News : Fans get a kick out of quality football

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Sunday, May 04, 2008
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Kerala

Fans get a kick out of quality football

The second E.K. Nayanar Memorial Gold Cup football tournament, which concluded at Kannur last Wednesday, was an unqualified success. Huge crowds turned up for most of the games. It was a well-organised affair and, most importantly, the football was of good quality.

“The tournament exceeded our expectations,” admits M.V. Govindan Master, general convener, organising committee. “It was heartening to see a capacity crowd for the finals. There were two reasons why many more people came to watch the second edition of the tournament. In the inaugural edition, the quality of the participating teams, especially the ones from abroad, was not that good, and the tickets were priced a bit too high. This time, we sold tickets for just Rs.10,” points out Govindan Master.

Foreign teams

“Though we are happy with the way the foreign teams performed, we would have liked to field stronger Indian teams. But clubs like JCT, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal pulled out because of various reasons,” he added.

It was the presence of the three foreign clubs – Ferroviaria (Brazil), Instituto Buenos Aires de Futbol (Argentina) and Bayelsa United (Nigeria) – that made the tournament memorable, though the eventual winner turned out to be an Indian side, Air India (Mumbai). The Argentines were a huge hit because of their endearing style of play. They played the kind of football one normally gets to see only on television.

Govindan Master says the support from football fans of Kannur has been a big boost to the morale of the organisers. “We are determined to make the tournament even bigger in the following years,” he says.

P.K. Ajith Kumar

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