The Hindu : Sport : IFA formalises merging of Premier and Super Divisions

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Tuesday, Jun 30, 2009
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IFA formalises merging of Premier and Super Divisions

KOLKATA: The Indian Football Association (IFA) formalised the amalgamation of the two top divisions in the Calcutta Football League (CFL) at a special general meeting here on Monday.

The Super Division has been discontinued and all its teams have been incorporated in the Premier Division, which now will have 17 teams.

An increased number of teams means the premier division of the CFL, which previously had the top eight teams of the city, will have a protracted format this season.

Change in approach

The decision is definitely going to change the approach of the big clubs in the CFL. With the CFL slated to run concurrently with the I-League, the clubs — East Bengal, Mohun Bagan Chirag United and Mohammedan Sporting — will have to select a bigger squad to have separate teams for the two tournaments.

According to IFA this has a positive side as the teams looking to enhance their squads would be giving chance to lot of young players.

The IFA AGM had a short agenda, which was completed soon after the nomination of the 48-member governing body.

The newly formed governing body, which is formed out of nominations from IFA’s 267 affiliated units, will now take up the issue of Baichung Bhutia, who has appealed against the suspension slapped by his club Mohun Bagan. The meeting is scheduled on July 9.

Semifinalists spotted

A combination of traffic and wireless units, a combination of special branch, detective department and the headquarter, a combined Districts division and special forces unit teams progressed to the semifinals of the Calcutta Police inter-unit rugby here on Monday.

In all, eight teams combining different units of the city’s police force participated in the preliminary league phase of tournament, which will see the semifinals and the final on Wednesday and Friday respectively.

The event saw around 200 personnel of Calcutta Police representing different combined-unit teams. The Calcutta Police team, that will represent the force in different tournaments, will be picked up on the basis of performance, informed a senior official of the city police. — Principal Correspondent

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