The Hindu : Sport / Football : East Bengal to tour England

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 16, 2004

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Sport - Football

East Bengal to tour England

KOLKATA, JULY 15. Kingfisher East Bengal — having made history as the first Indian club to win a title overseas with the ASEAN club crown last year — is set for another voyage overseas in the new season. This time it will be England.

The National Football League champion, which signed a partnership with Leicester City last year, has been invited by the English club to participate in a tournament hosted to commemorate latter's 120th anniversary. The Walker Stadium in Leicester City will host the Pepsi Max Challenge, which will also have Spanish club Real Mallorca and Maritimo of Portugal apart from East Bengal and the host.

The four-team affair will be held in a knock-out format with the first two semifinals on July 31 while final and the play-off for the third place are scheduled on the day next on August 1.

All the matches will be telecast live by Ten Sports, starting from 6 p.m. in the evening.

The team is scheduled to leave the city on July 28.

It has also been learnt that the Indian Under-17 team, that is preparing for the Asian championship, will also be hosted by Leicester at its football academy for a two-week training session. The academy director, Jon Rudkin, who had a brief session with the boys visiting the country a few months back, will be overseeing the proposed two-week session in the academy that is likely to begin on July 21.

East Bengal's website, which had an abortive start a couple of years ago, was rejuvenated on Thursday. Both the URLs — www.kingfishereastbengal.com & www.eastbengalfootballclub.com — lead to East Bengal's official website. — Our Sports Reporter

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