Subroto Cup kicks off from Sep 14

New Delhi, Sep 11: School teams from five foreign countries will be among more than 60 teams which will vie for top honours in the Subrote Mukherjee Cup Football Tournanent which kicks off at the Capital on September.


Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Malaysia are sending one team each for the junior (Under 17) and sub-junior (Under 14) categories while first timers United Arab Emirates will send only a sub-junior team to take part in the country's premier school level tourney which concludes on October 16.

Defending champions in junior category Hmar Veng High School of Mizoram will take on the champion school team of Delhi state in the inaugural match at the Ambedkar Stadium and Air Marshal JN Burma, Air Officer-in-Charge (Administration), Air Headquarters, will grace the opening ceremony.

Bangladesh will send junior and sub-junior teams from Krira Shikkha Protisthan, Dhaka, while teams from St. Thomas School, Matara, and St. Joseph's College, Anuradhapura, will represent Sri Lanka in juniors and sub-juniors respectively.

UAE's Dubai Modern High School will take part in sub-junior category.

Ambedkar Stadium will be the main venue but a few matches will also be played at Air Force Football Grounds at New Willingdon Camp and Air Force Station at Race Couse.

Subroto Mukherjee Sports Education Society (SMSES), the organisers of the month-long tournament, has also doubled the prize money this year.

The winners and the runners-up in the junior category will respectively pocket Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50,000 while the sub-junior champions and losing finalists will receive Rs 50,000 and Rs 30,000 each, Air Marshal Burma said at a press conference last night.

Each member of the winning teams of both the age groups will also be given suitcases by the sponsors while the members of the runners-up teams will get wrists watches.

A four-member selection committee will also select 30 outstanding players from the juniors and 16 from the sub-juniors for recommendation to National Institute of Sports (NIS) Patiala for grant of government scholarship.

The selection committee comprises Olympian Sqn Leader SS Hakim as the chief selector, Sports Authority of India representative Nirmal Singh, Anadi Barua as All India Football Federation nominee and Ranjit Thapa as SMSES representative.

SMSES will grant a one time stipend of Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively to each of the junior and sub-junior boys selected by the committee, Air Marshall Burma said.

The sponsors of the 47-year-old tournament will also award un-geared scooters to the most promising player and the best player of the tournament.

A 'Fair Play' trophy named after (Late) Lieutenant Sundeep Lumba, who died in a mountaineering expedition at Abhigamin peak, will also be awarded.

Air Marshall Burma added he was concerned at the practice of schools sending over-age players though the recent years had seen a decline in the number of such cases.

''I wish this problem (of fielding overage players) had died a natural death. But now, we got the technique to know the exact age of the boys. I hope such cases would be an exception rather than a rule,'' he said.

''It is coming down to a few cases in the recent years,'' added Air Marshall Burma.

UNI