Santosh Trophy: AIFF to look for alternative venue

By S.R. Suryanarayan

CHENNAI, SEPT. 24. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has begun to look for an alternative venue for the National championship for the Santosh Trophy, like it had done for the conduct of the Federation Cup earlier.

This had become necessary since the Western India Football Association (WIFA), the Maharashtra State body which was allotted the championship, is showing signs of developing cold feet.

Mr. Albert Colaco, AIFF Secretary, said from Margao that WIFA had earlier planned to conduct the event at Nagpur during November. However, he said, subsequently the Federation had come to know that WIFA had decided on Mumbai as the venue. Anyway, AIFF President, Mr. Priyaranjan Dasmunshi and Mr. Colaco are to meet WIFA officials on October 3 when a final picture would emerge on whether Maharashtra would host the tournament or not.

In the meantime, Mr. Colaco had circulated a letter to all affiliated units to check which State would be interested in holding the event for which the Federation would offer Rs. 20 lakhs to the hosting unit. Since the Federation had stipulated that the championship should be completed in 15 to 17 days, any State intending to host the tournament had to think of multiple venues, or more than one ground, and report to the AIFF by September 30.

The Tamil Nadu Football Association (TFA) had come to AIFF's rescue when Pondicherry was ruled out as host for the Federation Cup. Confirming receipt of AIFF's latest intimation, Mr. C.R. Visswanathan, President, TFA, said the State body has already sent feelers to some district units. ``Coimbatore is keen and may be Madurai too. But the problem with these centres is that the stadium and the floodlighting system need upgrading'', he said.

In 1998-99, when Tamil Nadu last hosted the event, the initial phase was held in Coimbatore and Udhagamandalam besides Chennai, the main venue.

The Federation Cup was good enough reason for the re- laying of the Nehru stadium turf in Chennai. With the Sports Authority of Tamil Nadu keen to upgrade the infrastructure facilities in the State as part of an exercise to give sports a boost, Mr. Visswanathan believes that should Tamil Nadu be offered the National then facilities in centres like Coimbatore and Madurai, for instance, need to be improved.

It is too early yet to ascertain Tamil Nadu's chances but there is reasonable satisfaction of it having conducted the Federation Cup without any major hurdle, notwithstanding the poor public patronage. ``We had completed the job with an expense of Rs. 68 lakhs as against the Rs. 90 lakhs that AIFF had budgeted'', Mr. Visswanathan said. But this figure, Mr. Colaco clarified, does not take into account the prize money amount. Nonetheless what TFA gained was minimal for it shared only the gate collection, which came to a little over Rs. 3.8 lakhs.

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