The Hindu : Sport / Football : New format for State football league

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 13, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Football

New format for State football league

M.R. Praveen Chandran

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Eight teams will take part in the newly constituted Kerala State League this season.

State Bank of Travancore, Titanium, Kerala State Electricity Board (all from Thiruvananthapuram), Viva Kerala, Cochin Port Trust, Central Excise, Malabar United (all from Kochi) and Chandini FC (Kozhikode) are the teams which will take part in the inaugural edition of KSL which will replace the existing State football league. This year the KSL is likely to be held in December.

The teams will be divided into two groups and the matches will be held in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi. The group winners will meet in the final which will be a two match series played on a home and away format.

However, from the next season the KSL will be played on the same lines of the I-League (home and away format). The clubs will have a pro-active role in organising their home matches and all the competing clubs will have to adhere to the club licensing criteria brought out by the All-India Football Federation under the Vision India project.

In future, clubs appearing in the I-league and the second division league will be exempted from playing in the KSL, paving the way for the inclusion of new clubs.

The change in format of the State football league was included in the Project Kerala report presented by the Asian Football Confederation which had identified Kerala as one of the four States for implementing the Vision India project.

A workshop was held in Kochi last week to familiarise the competing clubs with the rules and other key aspects of the project. Top KFA officials and representatives of the competing clubs took part in the workshop which was conducted by Illyas-Ur-Rehman, director of AFC’s Vision India project.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport