THE football season of Nagpur District Football Association (NDFA) for the coming season will kick offfrom October 23 with the prestigious JSW Elite Division tournament marking the beginning. Addressingapressconference, long-time President of the associationHaresh Vora informed that top 10 clubs of the city will vie for the honours. “The winner of the Elite Division will bag acash prize of Rs 1,25,000 while therunnersup will get Rs 75,000.The player of the tournamentwill get Jindal Trophy along with acash purseofRs35,000,”Voradeclared with Rinku Chaudhary, JSW AGM,Kalmeshwarsittingbeside him. With JSW Kalmeshwar once again supporting the entiredivisions,Vora announced the prize money of theSuper,Senior,First and Women Divisions. “The Super Division winner will get Rs 65,000, while the Senior Division winner will get richerbyRs 45,000.Similarly the First Division winner will get Rs 30,000 andWomen’s winner will get Rs 20,000.

 

Therewill be individualprizesaswellin thesedivisions,”added Vora. Teams which will participate in the EliteDivision areRabbani Club,Kamptee,Ansar Club, Kamptee,newly promoted City Sporting,YoungMuslimFootball Club,QidwaiClub,NagpurBlues, Rahul Sankrutayayan Club, Friends Sports Academy and South East Central Railway. The tournamentwillbeplayed in round-robinleague format with top four teams qualifying for Super Four and then top two making it to the final. While theEliteDivisionisopen for all, the SuperDivision will be for21yearswithonly threeabove the 21years of age permitted per team. “InEliteDivision, players above 39 years of age will have to produce doctor’s fitness certificate,” stated Vora. Vora also warned players as well as clubs for participating in unrecognised leagues in and aroundcity.He alsoopposedthe synthetic turfculturewhich, he feels, is too dangerous for budding players who might get threatening knee injuries. Vora also allegedly claimed that there is going to be ahuge multi-crorescaminNMCwhich is planning to develop 100 grounds in the city. NDFAsecretaries Iqbal Kashmiri, Dr Stanley Gregory, Abid Khan, Atmaram Pande, Dilip Gajbhiye, Sr Manager,JSW Steel, Mohd Mubin, Papan Pramanik, BernardD’Souza, AB Khan were also present during the presser.