Santosh Trophy Football चम्पिओंशिप-२००८, A Curtain Raiser

By: Abid गोव्हर (स्पोर्ट्स Journalist)

Football game’s big bonanza and most prestigious National level championship “Santosh Trophy” is at the helm to begin from 25 May,2008 at Srinagar and Jammu. It is only for the second time that the State is hosting this mega football event and that too after thirty years (last being hosted in 1978). The championship is being organized by the Jammu & Kashmir Football Association (JKFA) under the auspices of All India Football Federation (AIFF), the apex body of the game in the country, and will last for 22 days, comprising 52 matches among 31 State teams including the host J&K and Services team. This will be a much anticipated tribute to the State Football and its organizing Body JKFA, keeping in view that for last two years, the State government as well as the Association had been putting havoc efforts to get the mega Football show in the State.

It made blissful news for all the game lovers, late last year, when AIFF finally break the jinx and decided its next place as Srinagar and Jammu by expressing satisfaction over the infrastructure and other preparations. In 2006, JKFA was initially given a call to hold the 61st Santosh Trophy, but unfortunately the decision was reverted back (later allotted to Haryana), stating proper infrastructure concerns and delay in its preparations by the state agencies.

The Santosh Trophy is the Indian National State Trophy which started in 1941. The trophy was donated by the Indian Football Association (IFA), the parent body of Bengal football, in the memory of late Maharaja Sir Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhary of Santosh (now in Bangladesh). It is as prestigious national level tournament as Ranji Trophy and Dilip Trophy is for Cricket and because the State is more prolific in this sport than all others games over here, there is a special significance in hosting the event and that too after a long span and in revival of many things including the much awaited normalcy in the State.

The concerned apex Body of the State (JKFA) has pulled its socks up and is on the toes in making all the preparations for the forthcoming event. The Association has made a special organizing committee in this regard with its President Zameer Ahmad Thakur to act as Organizing Secretary with two Assistant Organizing Secretaries, one each from Kashmir and Jammu Divisions namely S.A. Hamid for Kashmir and Shiv Paul Sharma for Jammu. Both Kashmir and Jammu wings of the Association are being high alerted to make the necessary arrangements for the smooth conduct of the tournament.

The thirty one participating teams are divided into eight groups to qualify for the last sixteen i.e. Pre-quarterfinals excluding the four top teams of the previous edition. The four teams that have been given direct birth to the quarterfinals are Punjab, Kerala, Maharashtra and Bengal. The eight clusters for the 62^nd Santosh Trophy are:

CLUSTER V	CLUSTER VI	CLUSTER VII	CLUSTER VIII
Karnataka	Haryana	Chhattisgarh	Meghalaya
Uttar Pradesh	M. Pradesh	Railways	Goa
Jharkhand	Assam	Mizoram	Uttrakhand
-	-	-	-

CLUSTER I	CLUSTER II	CLUSTER III	CLUSTER IV
Tamil Nadu	Services	Delhi	J&K
Bihar	Manipur	Tripura	Pondicherry
Chandigarh	Orissa	Gujarat	Daman & Diu
Sikkim	Nagaland	-	H. Pradesh

Pertinent that Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Andaman & Nicobar State teams are not participating in the tournament due to certain conflict within the respective Associations.

The venues for the 22-day long Championship will be Govt. Gandhi Memorial Science College Jammu at which twelve cluster matches and a pre-quarterfinal will be played from 26^th May to June 1^st, Polo-ground Srinagar hosting nine cluster matches and a pre-quarterfinal from 26^th May to June 2^nd and Bakshi Stadium Srinagar in which twelve cluster matches, two pre-quarterfinal, twelve quarterfinal, two semi-finals and the final will be played from 25^th to 15^th June. All the three grounds are being equipped to the national standard for which preparations are in full swing under the observation of AIFF officials, who are, these days, making frequent visits to these grounds.

Worthwhile that JKFA is also planning to go on-line before the start of the championship in launching its web-site that will carry daily up-dates of the tourney including rich content for having a world-vide view of its activities.

(The author can be emailed at agowhar6@gmail.com)