Federation Cup football set to kick-off

The line-up for the competition, last held in 1996 at Kannur as the Federation Cup and in Calcutta as the Kalyani Black Label Cup in 1998, includes Kingfisher East Bengal, Mohun Bagan, Mohammedan Sporting, Sporting Club (Goa), Tollygunj Agragami, Hindustan Aeronautics (Bangalore), Vasco (Goa), JCT (Phagwara), BSF, Dempo (Goa), F C K, Zee Churchill (Goa), State Bank of Travancore, Punjab Police, Air India, Mahindra United (Bombay), Indian Bank and ICF-Madras.

Tata Football Academy, which was originally in the line-up, pulled out of the competition, following which the AIFF accommodated local senior division league team ICF.

The winner will carry home a purse of Rs one million, the runner-up Rs 600,000, the quarter-finals losers Rs 50,000, the pre-quarter finals losers Rs 20,000 and the first round losers Rs 10,000.

The competition will see a number of prominent players in the Indian football scenario, barring Baichung Bhutia. However, the participation of foreign players in the Zee Churchill Brothers team, Sporting Club, Goa, and East Bengal, has not yet been confirmed, with the AIFF yet to get clearance from the players' respective national associations, AIFF secretary Alberto Colaco, told newsmen in Madras.

"We are likely to get the clearance by tomorrow," he said.

A four-member committee, headed by the legendary P K Banerjee, Sukhwinder Singh, Syed Nayeemuddin and Gabriel Joseph will watch the tournament and select a list of probables for the Indian team, which will participate in the coming SAF Games in Islamabad and later in the Afro-Asian Games in New Delhi, Colaco informed.

The Cup, which had a chequered profile, was inaugurated in 1977 and was held without much grounding till 1996, with the AIFF switching its format. Then, with the idea of injecting professionalism, the competition found rebirth as the Kalyani Black Label Cup from 1997 to 1998. It was held at single venue -- Calcutta, with East Bengal, Salgaocar and Mohun Bagan winning it in that order and Dempo emerging runner-up once.

Some of the best named participating in the tournament are I M Vijayan, Jo Paul Ancheri, Bruno Coutinho, Jules Alberto, Raman Vijayan, Basudev Mondal and Khaleel Jameel.

There wil be 18 referees -- Rizwan-ul Haq (Delhi), Krishna Avatar (Delhi), S M Balu (Karnataka), Bharath Mani (Karnataka), Shaji Kurien (Kerala), P K Bose (MP, V K Singh (Bihar), M K Roy (Assam), Dinesh Nair (Gujarat), Gokuldas Nagvenkar (Goa), Walter Pereira (WIFA), Manuel Pereira (WIFA), Jayanta Chkraborthy (IFA), Udayan Haldar (IFA), S Suresh (TN), K Sankar (TN), P Basker (TN) and T Pradeepkumar (TN). They will be guided by Asian Football Confederation referees instructor Manian.

S R Dev of Madhya Pradesh is the match commissioner and M G Suvarna (WIFA) is the referee in charge.

The Federation Cup, which was held in Tamil Nadu in 1981 (Madras), 1984 (Tiruchirapalli) and 1989 (Coimbatore), has been alotted to Madras again only with the hope giving a fillip to the sport in the state.

Tournament history:

Year	Venue	Winners	Runners-up
1977	Ernakulam	ITI (Bangalore)	Mohun Bagan
1978	Coimbatore	East Bengal/Mohun Bagan joint winners
1979	Guwahati	BSF	Mafatlal
1980	Calcutta	East Bengal/Mohun Bagan joint winners
1981	Madras	Mohun Bagan	Md Sporting
1982	Calicut	Mohun Bagan	Mafatlal
1983	Cannanore	Md Sporting	Mohun Bagan
1984	Tiruchi	Md Sporting	East Bengal
1985	Bangalore	East Bengal	Mohun Bagan
1986	Srinagar	Mohun Bagan	East Bengal
1987	Cuttack	Mohun Bagan	Salgaocar
1988	Delhi	Salgaocar	BSF
1989	Coimbatore	Salgaocar	Md Sporting
1990	Trichur	Kerala Police	Salgaocar
1991	Cannanore	Salgaocar	Mahindras
1992	Calcutta	Mohun Bagan	East Bengal
1993	Calicut	Mohun Bagan	Mahindras
1994	Goa	Mohun Bagan	Salgaocar
1995	Calcutta	JCT	East Bengal
1996	Kannur	JCT	East Bengal
The tournament held as Kalyani Black Label Cup
1997 (Jan)	Calcutta	East Bengal	Dempo
1997 (July-Aug)	Calcutta	Salgaocar	East Bengal
1998	Calcutta	Mohun Bagan	East Bengal