Date:22/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/22/stories/2006052208971800.htm

Sport - Football

Original trophy untraceable

Sports Reporter

JAMALPUR: The National under-21 football is facing a strange predicament. The trophy for which the top youth teams of the country are contesting is not traceable.

The All India Football Federation has no clue as to where the trophy is.

The Indian Football Association had presented the beautiful trophy in honour of its president Manindra Dutta Ray. And ever since the under-21 competition was launched in 1992, the trophy has become the symbol of supremacy.

While the original trophies of the two much older National age group tournaments — Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy (under-16) and Dr. B.C. Roy Trophy (under-19) — remain in circulation, the disappearance of the Manindra Dutta Ray Trophy is intriguing.

No one knows which team has the winner's trophy. This has initiated a blame game among the winners of the last few editions of the tournament.

Bengal, which has played most of the finals, 12 out of the 14 editions held so far, says it had last handed the trophy over to Goa.

IFA secretary Subrata Dutta said that Bengal had written to the AIFF several times without any reply regarding the misplacement of the trophy. According to IFA, Bengal had handed over the trophy to Goa, after it had lost the 2002 final held in Mandya (Karnataka). The original trophy is apparently untraced since then.

Bengal said it did not receive the trophy after regaining the title in 2003 in Balia (Uttar Pradesh). Punjab, winning its maiden title in 2004, was also awarded an imitation by the local organiser - Jamalpur Sports Association.

AIFF general secretary Alberto Colaco said that the national body has been trying to locate the original trophy.

"I have been hearing about the misplacement of the trophy for quite some time. We have been writing to different affiliates who took part in the tournament and trying to know who last took it. So far we have not get any information regarding its existence,'' said the AIFF general secretary.

He said that in the absence of the original, the national Federation has been asking respective organisers where the tournament is held to arrange one locally. Now that the original trophy is considered all but lost, the AIFF should consider making a new one in its place.

Match from 3 p.m.

Meanwhile, the tournament has gained momentum with the semifinalists identified. The four teams - defending champion West Bengal, and the formers champions Kerala and Punjab apart from the host Bihar - utilised the spare day on Sunday gearing up for their respective encounters on Monday and Tuesday.

The organisers have decided to delay the start of the matches by half an hour - to 3 p.m. - as the teams had appealed for it in view of the extreme heat.