Tuesday, Dec 31, 2002
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Football
By Our Special Correspondent
This was announced by the AIFF president, Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, following the federation's General Body Meeting in the Capital on Monday. Mondal, a product of Tata Football Academy, Jamshedpur, played for JCT Phagwara before becoming a regular member of East Bengal and the National side. The award carries a cash prize of Rs. 25,000. Mr. Dasmunsi said that Chief coach Stephen Constantine was very impressed with Mondal, who had "infused a new confidence in the deep defence.'' He also added that Constantine found him "very consistent.'' It was decided to nominate I.M. Vijayan for this year's Arjuna Award. The revised format for the second division National Football League was also approved at the meeting. The tournament will now have two phases — zonal and final. From the zonal phase, two teams from each of the five zones will join two teams demoted last year — F.C. Kochin and Punjab Police — in the final phase. These 12 teams will be divided into groups of six each. From next year, the league will be restricted to only 12 teams. The break-up of teams taking part in the zonal league: East Zone (4): Sikkim (1), IFA (2), Bihar (2) and Orissa (1); North East Zone (10): Manipur (2), Arunachal Pradesh (1), Assam (2), Meghalaya (2), Mizoram (1), Nagaland (1) and Tripura (1); West Zone (8): Rajasthan (1), Madhya Pradesh (1), WIFA (2), Gujarat (1), Goa (2), Daman and Diu (1); South Zone (8): Tamil Nadu (2), Kerala (2), Pondicherry (1), Andhra Pradesh (1) and Karnataka (2); North Zone (9): Chandigarh (1), Delhi (2), Haryana (1), Himachal Pradesh (1), J&K (1), Punjab (2) and Uttar Pradesh (1). Final Phase: Group A: F.C. Kochin, winner of North-East Zone, runner-up of East, winner of North, runner-up of West and winner of South; Group B: Punjab Police, runner-up of North-East, winner of East, runner-up of North, winner of West and runner-up of South. Though Kerala, Goa, Bengal and Mizoram had shown willingness to host the second division matches, Mr. Dasmunsi said AIFF would allot the event to the one which fulfils the parameters regarding grounds and practice-grounds, accomodation, transport, security, medical facilities, TV coverage, besides the financial aspect. The calendar for the year 2003-04 was also approved while the request from IFA (Bengal) not to change the transfer dates was to be examined after receiving the final dates of the Olympic qualifiers. Mr. Dasmunsi also said a "project'' to make a "serious attempt'' to qualify for the 2010 World Cup was discussed by the General Body. Under this project, the current National (under-17) would serve as the nucleus for the 2010 team. The technical committee of AIFF was entrusted with the job of formulating the details of the project. An AIFF delegation was slated to visit China, Korea, Japan and Iran to study the projects adopted by these nations, which helped them improve their football fortunes. The detailed project was expected to be ready after the 2003 Asia Cup. "We have routinely taken part in the pre-Olympic and World Cup qualifiers but for the first time, we will prepare ourselves to be able to qualify for the 2010 World Cup,'' said Mr. Dasmunsi, striking an optimistic note.
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