31. May
Note-1: Mike Okoro's plans to join Singapore S-League side Geylang United seem to be something of the past.
Geylang United coach Scott O'Donell told IndianFootball.Com, "I have spoken briefly to Mike Okoro. Through a third party we were told that he was interested in joining Geylang. He called me last week to have a chat, but nothing came of the conversation. He will not be joining Geylang."
So it looks like Okoro will go to the Netherlands for trials but could return to India, if he doesn't make it there.

30. May
AFC U19 Women's Championships - Group B: INDIA U19 0-3 Taiwan U19
INDIA U19 Girls have made it to the quarterfinals and now face one of the title favourites in North Korea on June 2.

13.Datta Ray Trophy - Quarterfinal-League - Group B: West Bengal 5-2 Manipur - Goals: 1-0,2-0 Syed Rahim Nabi (27'37'), 3-0,4-0 Sheikh Habeeb Ali (44',58'), 4-1 Deshkumar Singh (72'), Kongreicham Duidang (87'), 5-2 Suraj Mondal (90+').
13.Datta Ray Trophy - Quarterfinal-League - Group B: Orissa 0-7 Goa - Goals: 0-1 William Colaco (3'), 0-2,0-4 Agnelo C Barreto (35',43'), 0-3,0-5 Zico R D'Souza (41',70'), 0-6,0-7 Lector Coiado (73',87').
39th Moulana Abul Kalam Azad Memorial Trophy - Kayalpatnam - Final: Keltron FC, Kerala 3-0 Octopus Marine SC, Chennai

Note-1: The training programme of the Indian Football Association-County Sports Foundation Football Academy started today at the Durgachak Stadium in Haldia under the watchful eyes of the chief coach Mohammed Habeeb and his assistant Sujit Chakraborty plus a number of dignitaries. Among those present were the CSF and Academy president Lakshman Seth and IFA secretary Subrata Dutta, whose idea the academy had been.
25 boys - 18 from Bengal, four from Mizoram, three from Manipur - will undergo rigorous training in the coming three years in Haldia and in the final year of their graduation the boys would play in the Calcutta Football League's first division Group A. One boy from Manipur had been released after the medical test.

29. May
13.Datta Ray Trophy - Quarterfinal-League - Group A: Kerala 1-1 Punjab - Goals: 0-1 Amarjeet Singh (20'), 1-1 Rajesh Mathew (73').

Note-1: East Bengal Club had formed a six-member disciplinary committee to look into incidents in Kuala Lumpur the night before the AFC Cup match against Negri Sembilan, which lead to Nigerian midfielder Mike Okoro not to take the field. Okoro had been showcaused by the club and in his written reply to the club, Okoro apologised but gave no reason. This lead to the disciplinary committee today taking the decision to slap a 4,700 US-Dollar fine on the Nigerian for bringing the club in disrepute. The fine will either be deducted from Okoro's new contract or the player would have to deposit the sum to the club before his International Transfer Clearance will be granted.
At the moment it is not clear if Okoro will remain with East Bengal for the new season or not as he wants to go to trials in the Netherlands.

Note-2: The 34th All-India Hot Weather Football Tournaments will be held at the Padal Stadium, Mandi in Himachal Pradesh from June 8 to June 13. The tournaments organising secretary Rajinder Gupta informed that 12 teams, including Punjab Police - Jalandhar, JCT Mills - Phagwara, Tata Football Academy - Jamshedpur, 3-Military Training Regiment - Goa, ONGC - Dehra Dun and Rail Coach Factory - Kapurthala would take part.

28. May
According to information we at IndianFootball.Com received today, the Indian national team will face the Indonesia U20 national team instead of the senior team on Monday. The Indonesia U20 is being coached by Englishman Peter Withe for the Asian U20 Championship in Malaysia in September. Peter Withe said India would cruise through to victory easily: "I think India will win easily against our team, but we will also try our best to win." He added that the game would be a good opportunity for the young players, given that they had never played against a strong team. "Most of our players have improved, though some don't progress as quickly as the others. They have good skills. It's just that they don't have good stamina and enough fighting spirit," the former Thailand coach said. Withe said that he had appointed Bobby Satrio as team captain, considering that the midfielder had great determination and was knowledgeable about the game. India will take on the Indonesian senior national team at the Bung Karno Stadium, Jakarta on Thursday. Indonesia, coached by Bulgarian Ivan Venko Kolev, lost to Saudi Arabia 3-0 and Turkmenistan 3-0 to stay at the bottom in Group 8 below Sri Lanka, which was also winless in its two previous matches but had a better goal margin. Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI) secretary-general Nugraha Besoes said that India had been chosen as a sparring partner because of its playing characteristics, which are similar to Sri Lanka's.

AFC U19 Women's Championships - Group B: INDIA U19 1-0 Singapore U19 - Goal: 1-0 Blanka Barreto.
With this win our girls qualify for the quarterfinals!

13.Datta Ray Trophy - Quarterfinal-League - Group B: West Bengal 7-0 Orissa - Goals: 1-0 Kartik Kar (4'), 2-0 Ashto Kanrar (18'), 3-0,5-0 Syed Rahim Nabi (20',46'), 4-0 Lal Kamal Bhowmick (45+'), 6-0 Suraj Mondal (85'), 7-0 Sarij Ul-Islam (90').
13.Datta Ray Trophy - Quarterfinal-League - Group B: Manipur 1-2 Goa - Goals: 0-1 Zico D'Souza (45'), 0-2 Rodrigues (50'), 1-2 Bijeshor Singh (70').

Note-1: The draw for the quarterfinals of the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup were held today at the Kun Lun Hotel in Beijing, China. The quarterfinal matches would be held later in the year in September 2004.
The only Indian representative left in the AFC Cup tournament, Indian champions East Bengal Club, have been given a tough opponent in Syrian club Al Jaish in a home-&-away matchup. East Bengal, seen as one of the favourites to win the inaugural AFC Cup, would host Al Jaish on September 15 in Calcutta, while they would travel to Damascus a week later to play on September 22.

Note-2: Will Central Railway, one of the top Indian Railway football teams, be allowed to Take part in the upcoming 2004/05 seasons Mumbai Elite League? Currently Central Railway, one of the top clubs in the financial capital of India, have been banned by the MDFA for gross indiscipline.
The President of the Mumbai District FA Kedar Singh, who organise the Mumbai Elite League, has said that a top official of Central Railway would have to send in a written apology in the name of the club, then they would be taken back into the top league. Otherwise the team would not take part in the league the coming season.. What the cause of the rift is isn't properly known and what the indiscipline has been, hasn't been clearly mentioned as well.

27. May
Yesterday it looked like due to visa procurement problems that India would only be able to play one preparatory match against Indonesia due to late arrival in Jakarta but now the problems have been sorted and both test matches can be played. India would leave New Delhi on May 29 and play their first match against Indonesia on May 31 instead of May 30, while the second match would be played according to plans on June 3. India would leave for Japan on June 5 to play their match in Saitama on June 9. So the journey beings on Saturday...

13.Datta Ray Trophy - Quarterfinal-League - Group A: Punjab 2-0 Bihar - Goals: 1-0 Amandeep Singh (23'), 2-0 Sunil Kumar (60').

Note-1: Where will Indian captain Baichung Bhutia be playing next season?
East Bengal have said they have finalised everything with Baichung, only the signature on the contract was missing but Mahindra United still have hopes to make a last minute signing of Baichung. Now a new candidate seems to try and get Baichung. Malaysian champions Perak FC from Ipoh would like to resign Baichung for the ongoing Malaysian season. Last summer Baichung had a two month loan stint at Perak and has left a lasting impressions with the club officials and coaching staff. So now as Perak search for a new striker besides Liberian international Frank Seator, the name Baichung Bhutia came-up and as Baichung still hasn't signed for any club as a free agent he is of interest to the Malaysian club.

Note-2: As had been expected FIFA has asked the AIFF for the International Transfer Clearance of Brazilian Jose Barreto to play for Penang in the Malaysian league, disallowing the ban imposed on the Brazilian by his former club Mohun Bagan. The key reason behind the ITC being given is that Barreto's contract had ended in March 2003 and therefore as a free agent he could sign wherever and whoever he wanted to.
But this is likely not the end of the story. FIFA is not at all happy having to handle a number of cases related to Bagan and their foreigners over the last year. So further information on the club and their dealings with foreigners will be sought by FIFA from the AIFF, who in their turn will ask for the infos from the IFA.

Note-3: Some interesting news regarding goalkeeper Rajat Ghosh Dastidar who has returned to Calcutta for the new season to play for East Bengal Club. Rajat was taking a stroll near Swabhumi, a heritage park in Calcutta, when he saw two armed hoodlums holding up a couple. Rajat immediately knocked one cold with an upper cut, chased the other and knocked him out too! He then handed over the duo to the police! Great civil courage Rajat - we are proud of you!

Note-4: In a further move to strengthen club football in Calcutta for the smaller teams of the city, the "Khadim's" Traders Cup will be held again by the IFA for the first time since 1979. 40 teams - 10 Super Division clubs, 29 clubs from lower divisions and the East Bengal U19 team - would be participating. The 40 teams have been divided into ten groups and only the winner moves on. The winner would get Rs 30,000 and the finalist Rs. 15,000.
The tournament kicks off tomorrow across venues outside Calcutta, while the final would be held at the Howrah Municipal Stadium on June 14. The clubs will be allowed to test non-registered players in the meet.
As per plans for the 2005 edition, all Super Division sides would then have to participate with an under-19 team.

26. May
The Asian Football Confederation like world football governing body FIFA acknowledge the work the IndianFootball.Com team does for Indian football, and has dedicated an article on us, our work and the IndianFootball.Com Awards 2004 on their new official website www.the-afc.com.
To go to the article: Click here .

AFC U19 Women's Championships - Group B: INDIA U19 2-1 Hongkong U19 - Indian Goals: Swapna Guria.

13.Datta Ray Trophy - Quarterfinal-League - Group B: West Bengal 1-0 Goa - Goal: 1-0 Syed Rahim Nabi (40').
13.Datta Ray Trophy - Quarterfinal-League - Group B: Manipur 7-0 Orissa - Goals: 1-0,2-0,5-0 Banny Chiru (23',38',83'), 3-0 Meikingai Kamei (58'), 4-0 O Bijeshor Singh (78'), 6-0,7-0 P Shyamu Singh (85',90').

Note-1: East Bengal Club had a good day in signing players today. Two of the clubs key midfielders Alvito D'Cunha and Sasthi Duley have resigned with the red-and.gold brigade. Yesterday East Bengal had signed Syed Hussain from Mohammedan Sporting Club as replacement for Surkumar Singh as right wingback. Meanwhile the talks with Brazilian Douglas da Silva seem to reach no result as the players demand are to high for the club, which is also said to be the case for archrivals Mohun Bagan who had also shown interest in Douglas if not retained by East Bengal. But Douglas has an Indian alternative - Fransa FC in Goa, where his brother Marcos Secco plays and who have just qualified for the NFL. More on Fransa later.
In Calcutta meanwhile Debkumar Sashmal like his coach Aloke Muhherjee returns to Tollygunge Agragami after a season with Mohun Bagan.Tollygunge have also signed India junior international Babin Biswas from Calcutta Custom, a first division club in Calcutta. Leaving Tollygunge will be Jiten Rai, who joins Mohammedan Sporting Club and seasoned keeper Raj Narayan Mukherjee, who joins Mohammedan AC (not Mohammedan Sporting, as some might think). Mohammedan Sporting meanwhile retained the services of former TFA lad Hamza Zaheer Abbas and have signed the three youngsters Mohammed Ali, Mohammed Yasin and Siddhartha Thapa from the SAIL-Mohun Bagan Academy in Durgapur.
For Fransa FC, the club, it's fans and their president Mickky Pacheco, the Goa Sports Minister, it is party time after gaining promotion to the NFL. All players got a bonus of Rs. 25,000 but now the real work starts for the club management to strengthen the team for the tough job next season in the NFL. Leaving Fransa will be keeper Juje Siddi and captain Bento Vaz, who join Salgaocar. Fransa retain Vikrant Sharma as one of their keepers, have signed FC Kochin keeper V Santosh and are said to be interested in East Bengal keeper Sandip Nandy but Nandy is said to have already signed for Mahindra United. Already Fransa has assured themselves the services of Churchill Brothers SC's Santa Singh, T Roopesh (Indian Bank) and Zenith (Indian Telephone Industries). But Fransa is working to make some spectacular transfers possible. Fransa is showing interest in Mahindra United captain Khalid Jamil, a consistent performer for his club, and also the Churchill Brothers duo AS Firoze and Tiken Singh. But as mentioned earlier the Brazilian influence could grow further at the club who played with three Brazilains in the 2.Division NFL. Douglas da Silva has an offer, while a rumour we at IndianFootball.Com have reported about a while back, could become true now. Fransa had talked to former Mohun Bagan star Jose Barreto about joining them a while back, now a new approach is said to be made to bring Barreto back to India.

25. May
Stephen Constantine announced the 20 member INDIA squad for the away match against Japan in Saitama on June 9 with some surprise inclusions, as some will say. The now former TFA trio of India Junior captain Gourmangi Moirangtem Singh plus defenders Habibur Rahman Mondal and Debabrata Roy have made it into the squad. Good to see this talented bunch of youngsters in the INDIA senior squad but also some regular players can't make the trip due to injury. Defender Debjit Ghosh and striker Abhishek Yadav are out due to injury, after M Suresh and Alvito D'Cunha couldn't be called to the camp due to injuries. Dempo striker RC Prakash returns to the India team after three years, while Sameer Naik returns to the squad about having missed the Oman match due to injury. Also making a return to the team is Bijen Singh.
At the camp in Goa had been another "Player of Indian Origin" in Phagwara-born Ranvir Singh from the United States but Ranvir was not chosen.
Keeper Naseem Akhtar (Mahindra United), defender Covan Lawrence (Mahindra United) and young midfielder Jerry Zirsanga (Tata Football Academy) have been named as standbyes, while keepers Abhijit Mondal (Dempo SC) and Mark Mascarenhas (Churchill Brothers SC) missed the team.
On their way to Japan, INDIA make a stopover in Jakarta to play two preparatory matches against Indonesia on May 30 and June 3. So finally coach Constantine is getting match practice for his boys before important international fixtures.
INDIA: GK: Sangram Mukherjee (East Bengal Club), Prasanta Dora (Mohun Bagan); DF: Mahesh Gawli, Deepak Kumar Mondal (both East Bengal Club), Habibur Rahman Mondal, Debabrata Roy (both Tata Football Academy), Satish Kumar Bharti (Mohammedan Sporting Club), Selwyn Fernandes (Vasco SC); MF: Climax Lawrence, Jatin Singh Bisht (both Salgaocar SC), Subhas Chakraborty (East Bengal Club), Sameer Naik (Dempo SC), Renedy Singh (Mohun Bagan), Shanmugam Venkatesh (Mahindra United), Jo Paul Ancheri (JCT Mills), Gourmangi Moirangtem Singh (Tata Football Academy); FW: Baichung Bhutia, Bijen Singh (both East Bengal Club), RC Prakesh (Dempo SC), Ashim Biswas (Mohun Bagan).

STATE BANK OF TRAVANCORE & FRANSA FC have gained promotion to the NATIONAL LEAGUE!!!
Congratulations from the IndianFootball.Com team to the two clubs and their fans!

2.Division National League - Bangalore - Stage II: State Bank of Travancore 1-0 Hindustan Aeronautics Limited - Goal: 1-0 Sylvester Ignatius (2').
Going into Tuesday's match, all Hindustan Aeronautics Limited needed was a draw to ensure a place in the First Division of the National League next season. But a costly defensive error in the early minutes of the match paved the way for Ignatius Sylvester to slot the ball home and made sure that his team State Bank of Travancore made it to the First Division after a gap of three years.
The Kerala League champions defeated the former Bangalore Super Division champions HAL 1-0 in the final match of Phase II 2.Division NFL at the Bangalore Football Stadium on Tuesday to book a place in the elite league with Fransa FC, Goa.
Fransa had defeated EverReady Association 2-1 to enter the First Division in place of the two relegated teams this season - Indian Bank and Mohammedan Sporting Club.
Tuesday's match started on a dramatic note with SBT striking the lone goal of the match in the early minutes. After a throw-in from the left, the ball beat the HAL defenders Manju Nanjangud Shivananju and Obinna Winners. Lanel Thomas then took possession of the ball and passed it to Ignatius, who just tapped the ball home, to the dismay of the HAL players as well as the crowd. From then on, while SBT were prepared to keep their lead intact, HAL made some moves but failed to convert them into goals. In the 15.minute, Xavier Vijayakumar's cross from the left flank went straight into the hands of SBT goalkeeper PV Harshal Rehman.Near the half-time mark, SBT's Abdul Naushad's attempt at the goal was negotiated by HAL custodian Amit Sinha Roy. A word of praise should be reserved for both goalkeepers - Rahman and Roy - who brought off some excellent saves.
After the change of ends, SBT came close to scoring on a few occasions while HAL held the upper hand by making more raids on the SBT goal. SBT's S Anil Kumar, who came in as a substitute in place of Mohammed Rafi, was unlucky as three of his attempts were thwarted by Roy. Of this one was a beauty as Roy flung himself to his right and tapped the ball out while in another instance, Anil, after beating two HAL defenders as well as Roy, hit a right-footer towards the empty goal which hit the cross-piece.
For HAL, things never went right as their skipper Dayanand was off-colour and was a marked man all the way. Others like Xavier, Satish Kumar and S Sunil Kumar were not upto the mark. The closest HAL came to equalising was in the dying minutes when Xavier gave the ball to Daya from the centre and Daya, in the left flank, hit a cross to Rajendra Prasad. But Rajendra's well-directed header was brilliantly put out by a diving Rehman.

2.Division National League - Bangalore - Stage II: EverReady Association 1-2 Fransa FC - Goals: 0-1 Mohammed Najeeb (9'), 1-1 Eugene Gray (48'), 1-2 Remedios Barreto (52').
In another match held simultaneously at the MEG grounds, Fransa FC defeated EverReady 2-1. Fransa went into the lead through Mohammad Najeeb in the 5.minute. However, EverReady hit back with their star striker Eugene Gray getting his team the equaliser in the 48.minute. Fransa had the last laugh as their foreign player Remedious Barreto, playing his first match of the tournament, found the net in the 52.minute to seal his team's victory and a place in the First Division.

2.Division National League - Bangalore - Stage II: Border Security Force 2-6 FC Kochin - Goals: 1-0 Harvinder Singh (22'), 2-0 Sunil Vairagal (27'), 2-1,2-6 Mohamed Shafeeq (28',90'), 2-2 Rocky Kom (33'), 2-3,2-4 Samuel Jackson (37',49'), 2-6 Philip Tarlue (76').
Earlier, in the first match of the day, FC Kochin finally woke up and registered their first victory in this tournament. They pumped in six goals past a hapless Border Security Force defence. It was BSF who took the initiative and went 2-0 up before FC Kochin got their acts together and scored at will. BSF's Harvinder Singh opened the scoring in the 22.minute and Sunil Vairagal made it 2-0 in favour of the securitymen in the 27.minute. From then on, it was a FC Kochin show as Samuel Jackson and skipper Mohamed Shafeeq scored a brace each and Philip Tarlue and the little Rocky Kom netted one each. Shafeeq made it 2-1 in the 28.minute and Rocky Kom scored the equaliser five minutes later. Jackson's goals came in the 37. and 49.minutes while Tarlue made it 5-2 in the 76.minute. The tennis set like score of 6-2 was complete after Shafeeq's goal in the injury time.

13.Datta Ray Trophy - Quarterfinal-League - Group A: Kerala 0-2 Bihar - Goals: 0-1 Manmohan Singh (25'), 0-2 Mohammad Imtiyaz (90+').

Note-1: When was the last time the Cooperage Ground in Mumbai witnessed a large crowd? It was quite some time back but now the Mumbai District FA will try to bring back crowds to Mumbai football's home during the Mumbai Harwood League. The league's format has been changed from just league into league-cum-knockout to make it more interesting for fans. The change in format was okayed by the Elite and Super Division at a meeting last week. Also being discussed is, if matches should only be held over weekends, enabling fans to see their favourites teams.
The new format is being welcomed by most but Mumbai's biggest team, Mahindra United, are not totally happy as more matches through playoffs mean more burden on players. Also Mahindra planned to experiment in the local league by using under-19 and backup players but this would have to rethought.
Making a comeback in the Mumbai football scene after over a decade is the Indian Navy football team, who have been granted entry into the Harwood League.

24. May
Note-1: The Inter-State Transfers are still open for another week and certain players are so sought after that managers fly around the country to get the players to sign for their clubs.
The most sought after but still undecided players is India captain Baichung Bhutia, who besides having an offer from his club East Bengal, has also a very lucrative offer from Mahindra United and also city rivals Mohun Bagan placed an offer to baichung. But now things seem to clear that Baichung is staying at East Bengal for another season after a fresh round of talks with the club officials, where a considerable payrise was offered to the striker. Also East Bengal have nearly ensured that midfielders Alvito D'Cunha and Brazilian Douglas da Silva will be staying at the club, while strengthening their backline. Rajat Ghosh Dasdidar, who it seemed was going to Mohun Bagan, has now finally decided to join the red-and-gold brigade along with defenders Vasco's Selwyn Fernandes, Mohammedan Sporting'S Madhab Das and Akshay Das, who last played for Sporting Clube de Goa. Also set to join is Kalyan Chaubey from EverReady Association, who played for Mahindra in the National League. East Bengal is said to be talking to bring back Raju Singh from Dempo, while scouts are in Bangalore to watch possible prospects. On the local front Prasanta Sarkar has been signed from promoted Calcutta Super Division side George Telegraph.
Set to leave East Bengal are top striker Cristiano Junior, who is set to play in Indonesia, while last seasons captain Suley Musah has been released and is said to talk to Mohammedan Sporting. Subhashish Roy Chowdhury has an offer from Churchill Brothers. Mike Okoro has demanded a substancial payrise and is set to leave for trials in Holland and continues to say he has an offer from Singapore side Geylang United, though Geylang denied earlier offering Okoro a contract.
Mahindra United meanwhile seeming to fail in bringing Baichung Bhutia and some others from East Bengal to the club, though four of last seasons successful East Bengal squad have signed for the Mumbai Jeepmen. Also confirmed are the transfers of talented Tata Football Academy graduate Debabrata Roy and Air-India youngster Vijith Shetty. Besides the already mentioned, Mahindra have retained the following players from last seasons squad, Sunder Raj Rajan, Rajesh Bangera, Arun Kumar Malhotra, Steven Dias, Jinto Jose, Rauf Khan and Hekmat Singh. But efforts are on to strengthen the squad further.
Former champions Salgaocar, who had a miserable season last NFL season are on a rebuilding trip as many of their top players have left them. The strong Indian midfield is no longer existent. Salgaocar have retained Bello Rasaq, Remus Gomes, Thiyam Raghuveer Singh, Bernard Pires, Savio Pereira, Gurinder Singh, Micky Fernandes, Felix Ibrebru, Freddy Mascarenhas and Samson Singh. Besides the already mentioned trio of Gumpe Rime, Amandeep Singh and Bhuvan Krishna Joshi joining from Mohammedan Sporting Club and Brazilian Marcos Pereira from Vasco SC; the green-and-white have also signed Mohun Bagan duo of Lorendra Singh and Rocus Lamare. Talks are said to be on with Felix D'Souza and Jerose Oliveira, both of Sporting Clube de Goa and Dempo's Clifford Miranda. But the Felix transfer looks unlikely as the keeper is said to have a contract until 2007 with Sporting Clube.
Goan side Vasco SC are also working to strengthen their squad. Agnelo Colaco, Seby Dias, Vinu Jose, Kamal Thapa, Sushanth Mathew, Kingsley Sequeira, Ryan Colaco and Levy Coelho have been so far retained, with former JCT and Mahindra keeper Virender Singh joining them, as he comes out of retirement and a coaching asignment with the India Youth setup. Also coming to Vasco are Avinash Thapa from Sporting Clube de Goa, while Satish Minz returns from Mohammedan Sporting.
Mohun Bagan's rebuilding plans seem to be working well, as the club has been able to retain Prasanta Dora, Manitombi Singh, Palash Karmakar, Basudeb Mondal, Mehtab Hussain, Abhay Kumar and Ashim Biswas. And also Bagan have made some important signings. The latest being Indian footballer of the year Tomba Singh. Also the club has signed Tapan Ghosh from Mahindra United, Amit Das from Tollygunge, while further transfers are pending at the moment.
On advice from Baichung Bhutia Tollygunge have signed Sikkimese players Tashi Rapden Bhutia and Leezang Lepcha, both from Boys Club in Gangtok. Otherwise Tollygunge seems to have been inactive so far. Even less news has come out of Dempo and Churchill Brothers on whom they are going to sign.
I know Delhi isn't in the focus and centre of Indian football but there transfers have also been on. 2.Division NFL side Hindustan Club has gained four players in the local transfers so far with Indian Nationals duo Biswanath Deb and Inderjit Dhar joining them along with Subash Negi (Shastri Club), and Inderjit Sharma (Hans Club).
More transfer news and gossip in the coming days...

Note-2: FIFA has selected India's top women referee Bentla D'Couth to officiate at the women's football tournament at the 2004 Athen Olympic Games to be playedfrom August 11 to 28. The 34-year old referee from Kerala is the only referee from the Asia to be accorded the honour of officiating at the Games. The Kerala FA gave a first short statement after FIFA's decision: "This is a great achievement for Indian football, especially for Kerala, as this is the first time in the history of Indian football an Indian woman will figure in the Olympics."
Congratulations to Bentla from the IndianFootball.Com team on her achievement!

23. May
The voting for the IndianFootball.Com AWARDS 2004 is open from today.
In the coming two weeks, you all have the chance to vote for your favourites in five different categories, in the selection round for the IndianFootball.Com AWARDS 2004. The Top 3 or Top 5 in each category will go forward into another round of voting, where the winners in each category will be decided.
Click here for the online voting form .

2.Division National League - Bangalore - Stage II: Border Security Force 5-0 Hindustan Aeronautics Limited - Goals: 0-1 Sunil Kumar (38'), 0-2,0-3 Satish Kumar (60',72'), 0-4 Sarabjit Singh (77' - own Goal), 0-5 Xavier Vijayakumar (90+').

Note-1: With Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, State Bank of Travancore and Fransa FC all tied on nine points in the 2.Division National League, and one round of matches remaining to decide which two of the three teams get promoted to the Premier Division of the National League, the two matches of the last round will be held simultaneously. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited face State Bank of Travancore at the Bangalore Football Stadium in a direct contest, while Fransa FC take on EverReady Association, most likely at the ASC Ground but the venue would be decided on Monday.

22. May
IndianFootball.Com editor Rohit went to cover the International Indian Film Academy Charity Football match at the Jalan Bashar Stadium in Singapore on May 21, where Bollywood stars along with Cricket stars and former local Singapore footballers showed their football skills.
Read a report and see pictures at IndianFootball.Com LIVE.

2.Division National League - Bangalore - Stage II: Fransa FC 2-0 FC Kochin - Goals: 1-0,2-0 Emerson da Silva (30',90+').
A moment of brilliance in the first half and a fine goal in the dying minutes of the game by Fransa's Emerson Da Silva sealed the fate of FC Kochin as they went down 0-2 to the former in the final phase of the 2.Division National League at the Bangalore Football Stadium on Saturday. With this loss, FC Kochin's hopes of making it to the First Division vanished. They have a single point from the four matches they played while Fransa brightened their chances of qualifying. They now share the top spot with State Bank of Travancore with nine points from four outings. FC Kochin have only themselves to blame for the loss as lack of finishing, which has been haunting them from Phase I matches, was again evident on Saturday.
Their star striker Philip Tarlue did everything right - ball possession, dribbling and passing - but failed to finish off the job. Had he converted the two easy chances he got, it would have been a different story. Fransa, on the other hand, have been riding on the Samba tunes in the tournament. This time, it was the turn of Emerson to show his class again. The first goal was an absolute beauty and worth paying a price to see it.
In the 30.minute, after receiving a pass from Fransa skipper Adewusi Adebayo Tokunbo from the left flank, Emerson, whose back was facing the goal, made a swift turn and pumped in a scorching right-footer into the far corner. The FC Kochin goalkeeper V Santosh had nothing to do except watch in disbelief. Santosh was otherwise brilliant under the bar making at least four saves.
At the opposite end, FC Kochin created a host of chances, but when they came near to the goal, the ball flew everywhere except into the net. In the 40.minute, a right-footed cross from Akbar Singh was well negotiated by Fransa custodian Juje Siddi, who was just able to manage the post in the last 10 minutes, as he was struggling with a leg injury.
After the change of ends, FC Kochin regrouped themselves and started to make more raids on the Fransa defence. Three minutes into the second half, FC Kochin got what was their first easy chance. Running into the box, Tarlue beat the lone Fransa defender Marcos Rogerio Secco and a goal was very much in the offing. But his shot was so poor that it went over the crosspiece with the rival goalkeeper at his mercy. In the 50.minute, FC Kochin's Rocky Kom hit the ball to the side of the far post and a few minutes later, it was again Tarlue's turn to fail. Like earlier, he beat Secco, but his attempt went into Siddi's hands.
For Fransa, things went on at a dull pace. FCK goalie Santosh made an excellent save, jumping to his left off an Akbar Singh attempt. Emerson was not able to repeat the magic as he was well marked by the FC Kochin defenders.
The final chance for the Kerala team to equalise came in the 65.minute. Akbar Singh gave the ball to Rajesh Thomas from the left flank and the latter's shot flew agonisingly close to the bar.
The curtains came down on FC Kochin's hopes in the injury time. Tokunbo found an unmarked Emerson and passed on the ball through the gap between two FC Kochin defenders. Emerson, would never miss such an opportunity and he found no difficulty in getting the ball past Santosh to make the score 2-0.

Note-1: The AIFF today announced a 20 member INDIA Women's U19 squad for the AFC U19 Championships to be held in China from May 26 to June 6. India have been drawn in Group B along with Taiwan, Singapore and Hongkong. S Ibeyaima Devi from Manipur has been named captain, with Goa's Blanka Barreto as vice-captain. Gautam Sarkar would be the chief coach, with Kuntala Ghosh Dasdidar has his assistant coach, Ekendra Singh as the Technical Director and Surinder Bhambri as Chef-de-Mission. The girls have been undergoing training in Calcutta for a number of weeks now. The team leaves for China on May 23.
SQUAD: GK: W Thabal Devi (Manipur), Madhurima Naidu (Maharashtra); DF: Th Ranjita Devi, N Naobi Chanu (both Manipur), Sarita Jayanti (Orissa), Simranjit Kaur (Punjab), Ansha (Bihar); MF: S Ibeyaima Devi, K Sandhyarani Devi (both Manipur), Paramita Sit, Sudipta Dash (both Bengal), Annu Kumari; FW: A Romi Devi, Lalbarmoi Hmar (both Manipur), Sasmita Mullick, Sapna Guria (both Bengal), Blanka Barretto (Goa), Sharanjit Kaur (Punjab), J Shalini (Karnataka), Tuli Goon.

Note-2: The Bengal under-21 team for the U21 Nationals has been named. Bengal face Manipur, Goa and Orissa in Group B.
BENGAL U21: GK: Raju Singh, Soumik Khanra, Soumen Halder; DF: Kripangshu Mazumder, Asta Khanra, Manoj Das, Madhab Das, Soumik Dey, Amjad Ali Khan, Mehtab Ali, Gouranga Dutta; MF: Lal Kamal Bhowmick, Kartick Kar, Manas Das, Pintu Islam, Ashok Das; FW: Syed Rahim Nabi, Suroj Mondal, Amit Koley, Habibur Rahaman, Rajib Ekka, Sanjib Santra.

Note-3: The Goa FA will issue new cards to players known as the Player's License, instead of the inter-village cards/registration cards. Forms for making the Players Licence are available at the GFA Office. According to a GFA press release, new cards will be issued from July 15. Until this period, no inter-village cards will be issued. Old inter-village cards will be invalid from October 1.The GFA said that the Annual Registration form which have been already posted to respective clubs, should reach the GFA office latest by May 31. Clubs which have not received entry forms should collect the same at GFA office, Panjim and Margao, during working hours, a GFA communique said.

Note-4: The Assam FA governing body would be meeting on June 12 to finalise the calendar for the 2004/05 season and also discuss the state football team's preparation for the 2005 National Games to be held in the state's capital Guwahati.
Meanwhile the 5th Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Memorial Football Tournament would now kickoff on June 13 instead of June 10 as per earlier schedule.

21. May
2.Division National League - Bangalore - Stage II: State Bank of Travancore 1-0 EverReady Association - Goal: 1-0 Abdul Hakkim (64').
State Bank of Travancore defeated a fighting EverReady Association, Calcutta 1-0 to move to the top place with nine points in four matches in the final Phase of the 2.Division National League at the Bangalore Football Stadium on Friday. The victory means, SBT have a bright chance of making to the First Division while EverReady, after today's loss, remain on five points from four matches. In a keenly-contested match, it was a see-saw battle as both the teams tried to gain the upper had. It was a well-measured pass from Mohammed Rafi to MA Abdul Hakkim on the run of the play in the 64.minute that sealed the fate of the Calcutta team. To add to that, a disallowed goal added salt to the wounds.
There was more action in the second half as the teams made frequent raids on the rival citadel. SBT came closing to scoring on more than one occasion as the duo of Rafi and Hakkim and later Martin John and Hakim made many forays into the EverReady goal, but failed to score. For EverReady, their skipper Earnest Chukwuma Jeremiah and Eugene Jlah Gray were unlucky not to score off the opportunities at their disposal.
In the first half, headers from EverReady's Surajit Chakraborty and later Ratan Das flew into the hands of the SBT goalkeeper PV Harshal Rehman. But it was SBT who got the lion's share of chances in either half. The chance they got in the 37.minute was one of the easiest. After receiving a pass from Rafi from the left flank, Hakkim beat the EverReady custodian Gautam Das and hit the ball towards the net only to see a brilliant goalline save from defender Surajit Chakraborty. A few minutes later, an attempt by Indian junior international NP Pradeep was well stopped by Das.
After the change of ends, there were many goalmouth scrambles at the SBT end, but they could never turn them into goals. On one occasion, Gray received the ball from the left flank and hit it over two SBT defenders into the net. But it was disallowed for a foul. For SBT, Rafi and Hakkim were on the look out for chances. In the 55.minute they came close to making it 1-0. Running on the right flank, Rafi passed on the ball to Hakkim inside the box. Hakkim's shot, however, hit the crosspiece and rebound. Taking advantage, Rafi too tried his hand, but saw his shot being blocked by the EverReady custodian Das. SBT finally got the all-important goal in the 64.minute. Running from the middle, Rafi gave a deft pass to Hakkim to the left. Hakkim took advantage of a vacant midfield, entered the box, beat a fumbling Das and slotted the ball home. Ten minutes later, SBT got a fine chance to increase their lead. Sylvester Ignatius did everything but scoring the goal as he hit the ball into the side netting.
On Saturday, FC Kochin take on Fransa FC, Goa in a crucial match for both the teams.

Note-1: Champions East Bengal Club are working on building a strong team for the new season, though hardest competitor Mahindra United has already taken away four of the teams players as reported on IndianFootball.Com yesterday. Besides the already mentioned retained players, also Deepak Kumar Mondal has decided to stay though he had a very good offer from Mahindra along with Debjit Ghosh and Sasthi Duley. Talks have been fruitful with Salgaocar keeper Rajat Ghosh Dasdidar and Vasco's dependable defender Selwyn Fernandes, who are set to sign the Inter-State Transfer papers in the coming days. Nigerian Louis Aniweta and Madhab Das had been confirmed earlier along with four TFA boys. Leaving East Bengal will be seasoned but over the top Raman Vijayan, who is joining Mohammedan Sporting after a disappointing season with the red-and-gold brigade.
Meanwhile East Bengal is finalising to keep Baichung Bhutia and Nigerian Mike Okoro but the two are looking and waiting for offers from abroad. Brazilians Cristiano Junior and Douglas da Silva have also been offered new contracts but nothing final yet.
Meanwhile Tollygunge Agragami and Mohammedan Sporting have decided on their coaches. Aloke Mukherjee returns to Tollygunge after a dismal season at Mohun Bagan, while Mridul Banerjee returns to Sporting after working in the India junior coaching setup.

Note-2: Very successful Dempo SC coach Armando Colaco was injured in a road accident, at Davorlim, on the outskirts of Margao in Goa, late last night.
Armando was traveling home on his two-wheeler when he lost balance, skidding off the road, landing into a nearby pit. Passers-by rushed to the assistance of Armando, admitting him to Hospicio Hospital, in Margao where he was given emergency attention before being transferred to the Goa Medical College, in Bambolim.
"Armando's head injuries prompted his shift to GMC. His condition is stable and there is no cause for worry," a hospital sources said this evening.
Apart from the head injury, Armando has suffered multiple fractures on his right hand, and is currently recuperating in the private ward of the GMC, at Bambolim. Doctors attending on Armando said the Dempo coach may need a surgery on his right hand.
No sooner news made the rounds that Armando was hurt in a road accident, many football enthusiasts and ardent Dempo supporters visited him. Some of the Club officials including assistant coach Camilo Gonsalves and the players met him this morning, so also Goa FA secretary Savio Messias and SAG Executive Director VM Prabhudessai.

20. May
The INDIA senior national team camp started-off today in Goa ahead of India's tough away 2006 World Cup qualification match against Japan on June 9.
The AIFF is working on giving Stephen Constantine and his boys a good set of practice matches ahead of the asignment in Saitama. If all details can be worked out, then India would play in Jakarta against Indonesia on May 30 and June 3 as preparatory matches.
Some good news for the INDIA camp came from Italy. Bologna and Japan star midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata will miss Japan's tour to England in late-May/early-June and also the match against INDIA on June 9. Nakata is currently nursing a sore groin, which he suffered during a league match. National coach Zico on Nakata's injury: "We want him to recover as soon as possible and have left him off the squad for this reason. I think he has his own schedule for recovery. Of course, it would be wonderful if he came, but I want him to do is concentrate on the medical care. I'm not going to call him up for the India game either. I want him to be fully fit as soon as possible." In Nakata's absence, Zico has recalled Kashima Antlers midfielder Mitsuo Ogasawara for the first time since he was banned for his involvement in an incident in a nightclub in February.

2.Division National League - Bangalore - Stage II: Fransa FC 0-1 Hindustan Aeronautics Limited - Goal: 0-1 Dayanand (52').
Both sides had plenty to gain from the match. A loss could have jeopardised the hopes of both. Both sweated it out for the whole 90 minutes to the best of their ability. The soccer dished out was fast, at times fierce, at times lacklustre, at times sublime. There was action aplenty, both teams looked evenly matched for the better part of the match, even the missed chances were equally shared.
And at the end of it all, local side Hindustan Aeronautics Limited earned a good night's sleep while their Goan rivals Fransa FC looked a dejected lot. The solitary-goal loss in the crucial Phase II match of the 2.Division National League at the Bangalore Football Stadium here gave a big jolt to their promotion hopes to the First Division of the NFL.
Their coach Shabbir Ali realises it. "We missed plenty of chances. But all's not lost. We still have two more matches. We will try our best," was all he could say.
The all-important goal was scored by HAL captain Dayanand against the run of play in the 52.minute, after the first half had ended goalless. Dayanand was positioned perfectly to tap home Xavier Vijayakumar's through pass after a fine move from the right by the hard-working Sunil Kumar. This was HAL's second win from three matches and took their tally to six points, while for the Goan side, who also have the same number of points, this was the first loss after two successive wins.
If missed chances cost them the match, refereeing blunders didn't help their cause either. Referee PK Bose from Madhya Pradesh looked clueless, erred in judgment, and to add to their woes, Fransa were at the receiving end of most of his errors, including two yellow cards for their key men Crasson J Antao and Naushad Puri.
Tempers flared often, but it did not distract the players from the task at hand. HAL had the first look at the goal as early as fifth minute but Eduado Chacon's header was warded off by Fransa custodian Juje Siddi. The Goans hit back soon after with a fine move from the left but forward Emerson da Silva, who had a bad day at office, muffed it up. In the 15.minute, Sunil had the goalie at his mercy but shot wide. Next was the turn of Satish Kumar to ruin an alluring cross from Vijay Kumar. Towards the end of the first session, Rajendra Prasad's well-directed header was mis-directed by Sunil with the goalie hopelessly out of position. In between, Fransa too had their chances, but lack of cohesion among the forwards ruined their efforts. Two fierce free-kicks by Caitan Costa and Adewusi A Tokunbo found the outstretched hands of HAL goalie Amit Sinha Roy, who also warded off a couple of other goal-bound shots to keep the Goans at bay.
After Dayanand's goal seven minutes into the second half, Fransa fought with all their might to get the equaliser but for the muffed chances. The frustration showed when Marcos R Secco almost scored a self-goal in a bid to clear the ball, after successive misses by the off-colour Emerson.
Shabbir, clearly dejected, stopped just short of blaming poor refereeing for the outcome. "All saw what happened. This is the result if you play away from home. But I am not taking the credit away from anyone. They utilised their chances, we didn't," he said.

Note-1: As we have been reporting over the last few days, Mahindra United are working overtime to sign the best available Indian talent to form a formidable squad in 2004/05, which can challenge NFL champions East Bengal. While the two most sought after players - India captain Baichung Bhutia and midfielder Renedy Singh have not decided yet to sign or not to sign for Mahindra yet, Mahindra manager Henry Menezes over in Calcutta has been able to sign other players. So far Mahindra have been able to sign Mahesh Gawli, Surkumar Singh, Kalia Koluthungan and Sandip Nandy. So Mahesh Gawli returns to the west coast as many expected due to family pressures but not to Goa as many would expect but to closeby Mumbai; while Surkumar Singh returns to Mumbai, where he had a forgetable 2002/03 season with injury problems. Also on the books of Mahindra are to get back Khalid Siddique and sign his teammate, striker Dipendu Biswas from Mohammedan Sporting. It has also been confirmed that Jatin Singh Bisht has signed for Mahindra's from Salgaocar, while Jatin's teammates Climax Lawrence and Tomba Singh will not be signed due to too high demands from the players. Meanwhile captain Khalid Jamil along with Shanmugam Venkatesh, Covan Lawrence, Abhishek Yadav and Naseem Akhtar have been retained along with the foreigners Raphael Akakpo Patron from Togo and Nigerian Odartey Lawson. As reported earlier James Singh and Jules Alberto have been released. James is said to be talking to Mohun Bagan.
Mohun Bagan continue their team rebuilding. The Tollygunge trio of Biman Mondal, Amit Das and Gouranga Dutta has been signed. Mohammedan Sporting duo Amjad Ali Khan and Syed Rahim Nabi are also set to come. Talks are said to be on with Mir Farooq Hyder of Churchill Brothers. Which TFA players have been signed or not isn't totally clear. While talented TFA keeper Subroto Pal has been signed, midfielder Gouramangi Singh hasn't signed for Bagan yet, as Mangi besides from Bagan also has offers from Mahindra and also from Goa. Habibur Rehman Mondal meanwhile will not sign for Bagan.
Habibur along with with other TFA batchmates goalkeeper Subhashish Roy Chowdhury, defender Gurpreet Singh and midfielder Bhola Prasad have signed for East Bengal. But besides these four East Bengal so far has only renewed contracts of Sangram Mukherjee, Malswam Tulunga and Subhas Chakraborty. Sporting Clube de Goa's Nigerian defender Louis Aniweta is set to be confirmed in the next couple of days but budget restrictions are causing problems to India's best team. Though talks are said to be on with most current players and targetted players as well.
Meanwhile Salgaocar is working to strengthen their team after a not so good season. Mohun Bagan's Brazilian striker Marcos Pereira, loaned to Vasco during the NFL, is set to join along with physio Robson from Vasco. The Mohammedan Sporting trio of Gumpe Rime, Amandeep Singh and Bhuvan Krishna Joshi are also to come.
Relegated Mohammedan Sporting is set for a complete overhaul as not players are set to leave, while the foreigners have been released. Many transfers away from Sporting have been mentioned above. To add to those striker Sheikh Sanjeeb and midfielder Bungo Singh are set to leave like Trijit Das, who has joined Calcutta Port Trust. Defender Madhab Das is a target of East Bengal, while Satish Kumar Bharti is said to be joining a Goan club. Goalkeeper Bibhas Ghosh and defender Hussain Mustafi have been released by Sporting along with Nigerian Okoli Onyeka Odofa, while his countrymen's Chidi Edeh and Godwin Abu Bakar loan deal has ended. For Sporting the team building will be very difficult as many players will be reluctant to come and the loss of NFL status is another factor against them.
Meanwhile India's second professional club Bengal Mumbai FC has changed their coach. Dronacharya Syed Nayeemuddin will be replaced by SS Hakkim. Hakkim has been lately successfully coaching Jammu&Kashmir Bank. Joining BMFC will be Nigerian utility player Habib Adenkule, who last played for Mohammedan Sporting before being fired.
As you can read from the above, the transfer season is in full swing...

Note-2: Former Mohun Bagan Brazilian star striker Jose Barreto is set to get his International Transfer Clearance soon to play for Malaysian Super League club Penang Panthers, after world governing body FIFA have instructed the AIFF to immediately release Barreto's ITC, seeing no reason in the no objection from the AIFF or from Mohun Bagan, as the contract of the Brazilian ended in March 2004. The AIFF has until May 26 to write back to FIFA, if they don't want to send the ITC giving clear reasons why or they would face problems from FIFA.
FA of Penang (FAP) secretary Mohammedd Junid Mohd Noor told the Star newspaper that the FA of Malaysia (FAM) have faxed to Penang a copy of the letter FIFA had sent to AIFF.

19. May
2.Division National League - Bangalore - Stage II: EverReady Association 1-1 FC Kochin - Goals: 1-0 Earnest Jeremiah (16'), 1-1 Mohammed Shafeeq (68').
FC Kochin hung on to the edge of their skins to rally back to hold EverReady Association 1-1 in the Phase II 2.Division National League match at the Bangalore Football Stadium on Wednesday. Needing to win this match to stay in contention, all FC Kochin could do was to rally back from a one-goal deficit and equalise, thus getting their first point of the tournament. For EverReady, the draw boosted their tally to five points from three matches.
The goal for the Calcutta outfit was scored by their skipper Ernest Chukwuma Jeremiah in the 16.minute and the equaliser for FC Kochin was fetched by their skipper Mohammed Shafeeq. EverReady were clearly the better equipped team and they deserved to win, but failure to convert chances did them in. They were superior to FC Kochin in all departments. For FC Kochin, it was again the case of poor finishing near the goal. More than that, their defence lacked any direction and on many occasions, there was only the goalkeeper V Santosh in the box. One such defensive lapse allowed Jeremiah to strike an excellent goal in the 16.minute. It was a solo effort from Jeremiah and he beat two defenders on the run, went inside the box and beat Santosh hands down. Though Santosh conceded the goal, he was excellent in bringing off some brilliant saves, especially in the second half. Likewise, the EverReady goalkeeper Soumen Mondal too was in his elements. FC Kochin's Philip Tarlue came close to scoring a few times, but failed near the post. In the 20.minute, FC Kochin got a golden chance to level the scores. Unfortunately, Tarlue's shot at the goal was saved by Mondal, there was a goalmouth scramble and to add to their woes, FC Kochin's Rajesh Thomas, too, missed. In the 18.minute, Jeremiah had a chance to put EverReady 2-0 ahead, but he missed an easy chance. Running in the left, Jeremiah again fooled the FC Kochin defenders and hit the ball. But a weak shot resulted in the ball going safely to Santosh.
In the 50.minute, Rocky Kom of FC Kochin, after receiving a pass from the left flank, failed to get the ball past Mondal. At the other end, luck seems to have deserted Surajit Chakraborty. The EverReady striker brought back memories of their first match when he failed to convert an easy chance. On Wednesday too, he missed a sitter. Jeremiah gave a pass from the left flank to Chakraborty inside the box. The latter beat the custodian Santosh and all he had to do was to tap the ball in from the near post. And horribly, he failed to do it.
The equaliser for FC Kochin came in a freaky manner. In the 68.minute, Rajesh Thomas took a corner and Mondal could just tap the ball instead of holding it. Shafeeq, who was positioned near by, sent the ball home, much to the relief of his teammates.

Note-1: The draw for the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup will be held on May 28 in Beijing, China.
Besides Indian champions East Bengal Club the following seven teams have qualified for the quarterfinals - Al Nejmeh and Olympic Beirut (Lebanon), Al Jaish and Al Wahda (Syria), Home United and Geylang United (Singapore) and Perak FC (Malaysia). Except Group opponents Geylang United, East Bengal could face any of the other six teams in a home-and-away quarterfinal clash.

Note-2: Agency report: The AIFF Disciplinary Committee noted with regret that the Western India Football Association, Mumbai, had failed to provide any security for the Mahindra United - Sporting Clube de Goa NFL match at the Cooperage Ground and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 following incidents when a few spectators manhandled the linesman after the match. Hardev Jadeja, chairman of the disciplinary committee stated that some of the match commissioners had reported about the basic lack of security and that the AIFF had written to WIFA a number of times but that "WIFA did not take adequate measures to provide security."
The committee was of the opinion that the AIFF should have stopped all matches at the Cooperage when they found that WIFA was not taking any action on several letters written by the AIFF.
The committee imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Sporting coach Clifford Chukwuma for his "aggressive and provocative behaviour against the supervising match officials". "Chukuwuma is guilty of violating the NFL and FIFA disciplinary regulations. It is a fit case for punishment under Articles 53, 56 and 68. Hence he is suspended from acting as a match official for six matches of tournaments officially organised by AIFF or any of its affiliated units. He is also cautioned against repetition of such behaviour," Mr Jadeja pointed out.
The committee gave a clean chit to Sporting Club President, Peter Vaz and outright rejected the allegations from Cdr (retd) Kehar Singh of WIFA that "Mr Vaz was involved either in inciting his supporters or assaulting or insulting the match officials." "The WIFA had also submitted that one of Mr Vaz's close associaties was the main culprit in the incidents. It has been found out that the person in question is not a registered official of Sporting. However, Sporting has been cautioned and warned that repetition of such incidents in any match may lead to serious repercussions," Mr Jadeja stated.
The decisions were arrived at after taking into consideration the reports of match commissionner, referee and reserve referee, letter written by AIFF to WIFA, letter from WIFA, replies to show cause notice from Haywards Sporting and coach Clifford, relevant disciplinary regulations and photos, Mr Jadeja added.

Note-3: East Bengal's Nigerian Mike Okoro might be in real trouble now, as Mike refused to take the field against Negri Sembilan in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. Mike had no injury nor any other problem but didn't leave the hotel for no given reason. The club management awaited the managers report before taking any action. East Bengal are in a fix as they wanted to resign Okoro but after the second such an incidence, the club would have to have another thought, though Okoro played a great NFL campaign and had been instrumental in the clubs ASEAN Club Cup win.

Note-4: IFA have decided to cancel the registration of six footballers for not joining the Bengal Under-21 probables' camp.
The concerned players are Palash Karmakar, Rocus Lamare (both Mohun Bagan), Bhuvan Krishna Joshi, Amandeep Singh (both Mohammedan Sporting), Jiten Rai (Tollygunge Agragami) and Nasibul Haq (Wari AC).
The players have been penalised under Rule 32 of the IFAs constitution, as the players didn't supply "sufficient or satisfactory reason" for not attending the camp. This means the players cannot sign for any club in 2004/05 nor take an Inter-State Transfer, keeping them sidelined for a whole year. An appell isn't possible.
Also the IFA informed today that 26 boys - 18 from Bengal, four each from Manipur and Mizoram - had been chosen for the IFA Academy in Haldia, which starts functioning on May 30. The boys, aged in average 14 years, will be on trials for the first three month's and if found not good enough, they would be released.
In another move to strengthen lower level football, the IFA would revive the Trades Cup featuring Super Division and first divisions, except the Big Four - East Bengal, Mohun Bagan, Tollygunge Agragami and Mohammedan Sporting. In total 39 teams would be divided into ten groups and would play in nine venues in and around Calcutta.

18. May
AFC Cup 2004 - Group E: Negri Sembilan (MALAYSIA) 2-1 East Bengal Club - Goals: 1-0,2-1 Suharmin Yusof (23',49'), 1-1 Cristiano Junior (24').
East Bengal Club's unbeaten run in Asia ended today, in their lastmatch of the 2003/04 season, with a 1-2 away loss to Malaysian FA-Cup winners Negri Sembilan in an AFC Cup Group E match at the Bukit Jalil Stadium, Kuala Lumpur. East Bengal end their Group E campaign on 13 points from six matches and have qualified for the quarterfinals to be held later this year.

2.Division National League - Bangalore - Stage II: State Bank of Travancore 2-0 Border Security Force - Goals: 1-0 Abdul Naushad (38'), 2-0 Mohammed Rafi (75').
State Bank of Travancore lived upto the expectations and outplayed a lacklustre Border Security Force, Jalandhar 2-0 in the Phase II 2.Division National League match at the Bangalore Football Stadium on Tuesday. In a slow-paced match where fortunes fluctuated mostly in the Kerala team's way, it was deserving that they emerged the winners. BSF were completely outplayed in all departments of the game and were dominated throughout the match. Abdul Naushad and M Mohammed Rafi were the goal scorers and the margin would have been more had the SBT players capitalised on the chances they got.
The match started with SBT making repeated raids on the BSF citadel, only to falter near the goal. In the eighth minute, Sylvester Ignatius gave a pass from the left to MA Abdul Hakkim, but the latter failed to get the ball past the BSF goalkeeper Deepak Hazarika. Hakkim again failed when his attempt soared over the post in the 18.minute and in the 37.minute, Naushad hit the ball over the cross piece after receiving a pass from Hakkim from the left.
SBT made up for their mistakes with a goal in the 38.minute. Running straight, Naushad passed on the ball to Ignatius at the right, beat two defenders and received the ball again inside the box. He only had to go past Hazarika and did so in fine fashion, putting the ball to the corner of the far post. Two minutes before half time, SBT got yet another chance and failed again as Ignatius hit the ball into Hazarika's hands off a pass from Rafi.
After the break, BSF got their first important chance, but Sunil Vairagal's right-footer went past the far post and a few minutes later, Santosh Shetty of BSF could not go past SBT goalkeeper PV Harshal Rahman.
The Kerala outfit increased their lead in the 74th minute through Rafi's left-footer. After receiving the ball from Hakim, Rafi, placed it inside the box, beat Hazarika and put his team in a commanding situation. From there on, SBT got two more chances, but were unable to increase their tally. Two minutes after the second goal, Hakkim again failed as his shot at the net went over the horizontal and later, he slipped at the near post.
On Wednesday, it is a must-win situation for FC Kochin when they take on EverReady, Calcutta. FC Kochin have to win the match to stay in contention for a place in the First Division.

Note-1: After extending the contract of their coach David Booth, Mahindra United is now on the hunt to sign the best Indian players on the curcuit. Mahindra, who are said to increase their budget for the new season, are talking to numerous Indian internationals. No.1 on their wish list is India captain Baichung Bhutia but also further East Bengal players in Deepak Kumar Mondal, Mahesh Gawli and Alvito D'Cunha are in their books, along with Salgaocar duo Climax Lawrence and Jatin Singh Bisht plus Mohun Bagan captain Renedy Singh.
Meanwhile Mahindra has released players of the calibre of former international Jules Alberto and James Singh.

Note-2: The AFC U-19 Women's Championship, China 2004 will be held from May 26 to June 6. The INDIA U19 girls have been drawn in Group B with Taiwan, Singapore and Hongkong. India play their opening match on May 26 against Hongkong, face Singapore on May 28 and in their final match face their toughest opponent in Taiwan on May 30. The top two teams in the four groups move into the quarterfinals with a chance to qualify for the U19 Women's World Cup.

Note-3: Tomorrow is an important day for the sporting franity in the north Bengal town of Siliguri, then the Siliguri Football Academy and the Himalayan Tennis Academy would be inaugurated. The Siliguri Football Academy would be opened by former Indian international Chuni Goswami. The Academy would be based at the Kanchanjunga Stadium and initially 40 newly recruited boys would undergo training.

17. May
2.Division National League - Bangalore - Stage II: EverReady Association 1-0 Hindustan Aeronautics Limited - Goal: 1-0 Eugene Gray (62').
A costly lapse from the normally safe defenders of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited was enough for EverReady Association to collect three points and post their first win in Phase II of the 2.Division National League at the Bangalore Football Stadium on Monday. The final margin of 1-0 might not be convincing but it forced HAL into their first defeat in the 2.Division. The lone goal for the winners was scored by Eugene Jlah Grey in the 62.minute and it was more a mistake on the part of the defending duo of Du and Obinna Winners.
The goal was scored after a goalmouth scramble in which an EverReady player made an attempt at the goal, but he failed and the ball travelled to the left. Immediately, Gray, rushing in, beat the two defenders and sent the ball into the far post much to the delight of his teammates. This was the only bright moment of the match and the rest ran on the usual line of hits and misses.
Continuous rain forced the players to be more alert in their movements and this slowed down the pace of the match. In the 17.minute, HAL made their first real attempt. Dayanand's pass from the left was hit over the post by Satish Kumar and later Rajendra Prasad hit wide off the net. For EverReady, skipper Ernest Chukwuma Jeremiah's left-footer went over the post in the 30.minute.
In the second half, HAL got a few good chances, but they goofed up. In the 59.minute, Du's shot at the net was blocked by the EverReady defenders and Dayanand, positioned in the right flank, made use of the chance, but he too failed. However, the ball skidded off a EverReady defender's legs and Xavier Vijayakumar hit the ball wide off the net. After EverReady scored the first goal, Dayanand came near to scoring but his scorching left-footer from the left flank, hit the top of the post and flew off. A few minutes later, Xavier was well positioned to head home a Satish pass from the left, but he failed to do so.
With this loss, HAL have three points from two matches with a win and a loss while Fransa FC, Goa, lead the table with six points from two wins.

Note-1: The Malaysian FA had asked for an International Transfer Clearance for Brazilian Jose Barreto to join Malaysian Super League side Penang Panthers but the AIFF rejected the request on Saturday due to an objection from Barreto's now former club Mohun Bagan. Now Barreto will seek the help from FIFA to obtain his ITC, if Mohun Bagan continue to disallow the transfer. Barreto believed that the issue would be solved by wednesday and that he could be playing by the weekend.

Note-2: Mohun Bagan are working to rebuilt their team after the miserable season and are set to sign some of the best names in Indian football.
Bagan has retained Prasanta Dora, Mehtab Hussain and Palash Karmakar, while the following players are said to have signed the Inter-State Transfer papers for Bagan - Dempo's Sameer Naik, Stanley Colaco; Churchill Brothers Noel Wilson and Rajesh Meetei, Salgaocar's Dharamjit Singh and Mehraj Din Wadoo from Sporting Clube de Goa.
Bagan captain Renedy Singh, who is said to have a number of offers, especially one from Mahindra, hasn't re-signed yet for Bagan and has asked for a couple of days more to decide. The Punjabi players at Bagan are set to return to JCT, especially the Hardip's - Hardip Singh Saini and Hardip Singh Gill want to go home, while Harpreet Singh and Sanjeev Kumar Maria could be retained.
Also Bagan now claim to have also signed Nigerian defender Louis Aniweta from Sporting Clube de Goa, though East Bengal claim to have signed the African on their last Goan trip.
Also the Bagan coach issue seems undecided. Bagan have approached Indian Bank coach VP Sathyan to take over the team. Subroto Bhattacharjee wasn't very happy about it as expected, as he himself thought to get back into the coaching post from technical director.
Meanwhile city rivals East Bengal are looking to replace Sandip Nandy, who is set to join Mahindra United. The favourites to do so are Salgaocar keeper Rajat Ghosh Dasdidar and EverReady's Kalyan Chaubey, who is currently on loan to Mahindra United.
At Tollygunge Agragami, the third Calcutta NFL club, the question about the coach for the new season are being asked. Krishnendu Roy did a good job to keep Tollygunge in the NFL but as former successful coach Aloke Mukherjee is free on the market, Tollygunge might try to bring him back to the club. The club officials are undecided at the moment. What is clear is that on Baichung Bhutia's advice and with his help, two players from Sikkim would be signed.

16. May
We at IndianFootball.Com have to get a little political after the Lok Sabha (lower House of Parliament) results were released midweek. And in the end you will read why all this has a football connection.
"Forza INDIA" as many would see India after the surprise defeat of the BJP led NDA government and the return of the Indian National Congress with Sonia Gandhi as the likely new Prime Minister. The national anthem rewritten as "Vande Mata Rome" is one of the jokes. I asked Italian friends of mine as what Italians see Sonia Gandhi and I got the same reply again and again. Italians are proud of Sonia Gandhi that she could be leading the largest democracy in the world but don't see hear as an Italian anymore but as an Indian women of Italian origin. Maybe some people in India need to learn certain thinks afresh on being just human beings.
Now back to Indian football. Two persons involved in Indian football in a big way stood election - AIFF president Priya Ranjan Das Munshi in Raigunj, North Bengal and Churchill Brothers president Churchill Alemao in south Goa. Both won their elections on a Congress ticket.
The quote of the elections came from the AIFF president Das Munshi after winning his constituency. Being asked by journalists what would happen in Bengal between the Congress and the Left parties are set to work together at the centre. Das Munshi replied, "the tension and aggression is always on among the East Bengal and Mohun Bagan players, but when they play for the national team, they play together for the country. So Congress & the eft will also be like those players."
So anyone questioning if in all his election campaigning the AIFF president had forgotten about football, one has to at least say no. One can only hope with the return of a Congress government, the AIFF president would be able to get more support from the Central government for the cause of football.
Lets see what happens...

2.Division National League - Bangalore - Stage II: Border Security Force 1-2 Fransa FC - Goals: 0-1 Mohammed Najeeb (12'), 0-2 Ivan Fiel da Silva (13'), 1-2 Sunil Burgal (71').
Fransa FC of Goa recorded their second consecutive victory in Phase II of the 2.Division National League on Sunday after defeating Border Security Force, Jalandhar, 2-1 at the Bangalore Football Stadium. Fransa have to thank their Brazilian striker Ivan Fiel Da Silva, who first set up a goal and later struck an absolute stunner, for the victory. The parity for BSF was restored by Sunil Burgal, who came in as a substitute, with a goal in the 71.minute.
The match started on an interesting note with Fransa going on the prowl right from the start. After making a few moves, they were able to get their first goal in the 12.minute on the run of play. Ivan, placed in the left wing, gave a pass to Peter Pereira inside the box. Pereira in turn, passed on the ball to Mohammed Najeeb, who sent in a cross into the near post. Just a minute later, Ivan got into the act with a brilliant goal. From outside the box, Ivan controlled the ball and beat two BSF defenders - PB Ekka and Amarjith Singh - and pumped in a powerful right-footer to the absolute dismay of the BSF custodian Deepak Hazarika. From then on it was the usual case of playing and missing as players from both the teams got their chances but failed to capitalise on them. In the 25.minute, BSF's Raghnunath Hansda came close to scoring, but hit the ball wide off the far post. On the other hand, Fransa's Naushad Pari, who took over the charge after Ivan's exit due to a leg injury, made an attempt at the goal only to see the ball fly straight into Hazarika's hands.
In the 71.minute, BSF were able to reduce the margin after Burgal scored off a Santosh Shetty pass. After receiving the ball from the left from Shetty, Burgal had no problems in getting the ball past Fransa goalkeeper Juje Siddi. It was the last major chance any team got and the remaining 20 minutes did not produce any excitement.
Fransa coach, Shabbir Ali, a former international, was all praise for Ivan and also was happy with the team's victory. "It is nice to get three points... But there are three more matches remaining and we should not be complacent."
"Ivan was in great form, his goal was an absolute beauty and I have never seen such goal for a long time," added an elated Ali.
On Monday, local team Hindustan Aeronautics Limited take on EverReady Association, Calcutta.

Note-1: The Hero Indian Sports Academy (HISA) Awards for outstanding performances during the year 2003 were given away last night at a function in Hyderabad. Prizes were given away in 20 different categories to India's achievers of the last year.
In the football category India captain and superstar Baichung Bhutia was pitted against retired international and India's most skillful footballer IM Vijayan and striker-turned-attacking midfielder Alvito D'Cunha. The deserved winner was an elated IM Vijayan, especially for his performances for India at the Afro-Asian Games, his last international tournament for our country.
Congrats Vijubhai for the award!!!

Note-2: Coming Friday, May 21, evening at 18.00 local time the Jalan Besar Stadium in Singapore will see a match of Indian (Bollywood) football with a cause.
As part of the International Indian Film Academy Weekend in Singapore the charity football match would be held for the technicians who have faced misfortune during the shooting of films.
The two sides would be captained by Bollywood stars Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt. Further Bollywood stars in Sunil Shetty, Rahul Khanna, Zayed Khan, Fardeen Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Shahid Kapoor and Ajay Devgan would be seen kicking the ball along with crickters, India's Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag, and Australians Brett Lee and Shane Lee. Also seen in action would be former Singapire star Fandi Ahmad, called Pele of Singapore.
A good cause to use football but maybe it would have been an idea to get some Indian footballers involved. Such publicity would be great for Indian football. Maybe next time...

Note-3: The Guwahati Sports Association is fixed and indirectly set dates for football tournaments in the upcoming 2004/05 season.
The 5th Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Memorial Football Tournament would be held from June 10 to 30 at the Nehru Stadium, Guwahati. The Guwahati Super Division would kickoff thereafter in the second week of July. The plans for the 53rd Bordoloi Trophy see the tournament being held in September, depending on availability of India's top clubs.

15. May
The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be hosted by SOUTH AFRICA!
The decision of the FIFA executive committee was announced by FIFA president Sepp Blatter in Zurich, Switzerland today just after noon.
FIFA's executive committee chose South Africa, the slight favourites, on the first round of voting. The other candidates to host the 32-team finals were Morocco and Egypt. South Africa got 14 of the 24 votes, while Morocco got 10 and Egypt none.
Libya's bid was stood down by FIFA on Saturday because it did not meet the criteria and Tunisia pulled out on Friday after being refused the option of co-hosting the event with Libya.
So the biggest single sports event, the Football World Cup, goes to the African continent for the first time, as had been decided by FIFA earlier by it's new rotation system, but many also see it as a consolation victory for South Africa after losing out to Germany four years ago to host the 2006 World Cup.
As per the rotational system put in place by FIFA the 2014 World Cup would go to South America and with Brazil's Football Federation celebrating it's centenary that year, it is most likely to host the 2014 World Cup then.

2.Division National League - Bangalore - Stage II: State Bank of Travancore 3-1 FC Kochin - Goals: 1-0 Sylvester Ignatius (28'), 2-0 Abdul Hakkim (57'), 2-1 Rajesh Thomas (62'), 3-1 Mohammed Rafi (76').
Nothing seems to be going right for FC Kochin. On Saturday, they succumbed to their second loss - a 1-3 thrashing in the hands of their statemates State Bank of Travancore in a Phase II 2.Division National League match at the Bangalore Football Stadium here. With this loss, their second in a row after their defeat to HAL on Tuesday, the road ahead looks difficult for India's first professional football club and they need to pull all the strings together in their remaining matches to keep alive the hopes of qualifying to the First Division. The goals for the winning team were scored by Sylvester Ignatius, MA Abdul Hakkim and substitute M Mohammad Rafi while Rajesh Thomas netted the consolation goal for the losers.
No one expected FC Kochin to cave in so meekly. However, SBT were clearly the better team and the best thing about them was their ability to convert the chances they received while FC Kochin failed to do so. The failure of their foreign duo of Phillip Tarlue and Theodre Wrobeh cost them dearly.
The first goal of the match came two minutes before the half-an-hour-break when Ignatius scored of a T Asif Saheer pass. It was a rather easy goal. After receiving a pass from AB Kabeer, Saheer gave a cross to Ignatius and the latter just tapped the ball into an empty goal. After a couple of minutes, SBT's Paul Anthony missed a chance as he hit the ball over the post. FC Kochin's Tarlue got a rather easy chance, but hit the ball straight into SBT goalkeeper's hand.
After the breather, SBT's Saheer came almost near to scoring but only managed to hit the ball to the side of the net. For FC Kochin, Tarlue was again in the thick of the things, only to see his attempt fly wide off the post. In the 57.minute, SBT got the second goal which was more of a mistake on the part of Santosh, the FC Kochin custodian. After a Saheer pass from the left, Hakkim, made full use of the empty goal and beat a marching Santosh to put the ball home. After five minutes, FC Kochin were able to reduce the margin thanks to Rajesh Thomas. It all began when Genius Zenith's attempt was successfully negotiated by the SBT custodian PV Harshal Rehman. Unfortunately, the ball flew off his hand and Thomas sent in a right-footer to the far post. Rafi sealed the final nail in the FC Kochin coffin by disturbing the net off an Ignatius pass from the left in the 76.minute.

Note-1: The first window for the Inter-State Transfers opened today and would remain open until May 31. The second transfer window would be held from October 15 to 31.
Also new and taking effect from now is that players can take transfers in two categories - professional (non-amateur) and amateur. This had been adviced by the AIFF's Players' Status Committee and had been approved at the AIFFs Annual General Meeting.
The now allowed transfers would take effect from June 1 and thereafter, whenever the transfer certificate is issued. But a player having taken Inter-State transfer in the first window will not be eligible to seek transfer in the second window. And the players transferred on loan cannot return to the same club or be transferred to another club, during the same season. No transfer on loan will be accepted or made after February 28, 2005.

Note-2: Mahindra United and their coach David Booth have signed a new contract, which would keep the Englishmen for another two years at the club until 2006. Booth had signed over the dotted line on Thursday, a day before the final match against Tollygunge Agragami.
For the Mumbai Jeepmen and their coach this marks the end of a successful season, in which Mahindra not only retained their Mumbai Harwood League title, they won the Federation Cup for the first time, won the President of Maldives Invitational Soccer Cup 2003 in October as their first title abroad and also finished a credible third in the National League. Especially the third place in the National League will be heartening for the club as it was their best-ever finish in the NFL and not since yesterday Mahindra has been having one of the highest budgets and brought top class players to the club. Only that success came under Booth.

14. May
8th National League - Goa: Dempo SC 3-2 Mohammedan Sporting Club - Goals: 1-0,2-0 Ishfaq Ahmed (12',55'), 3-0 Alex Ambrose (69'), 3-1,3-2 Syed Rahim Nabi (79',85').
In their 22nd and last match of the 8th National League Dempo SC beat Mohammedan Sporting Club 3-2 at the Nehru Stadium in Margao to finish second in the league, while Sporting were relegated to the 2.Division National League. Dempo SC finished a respectable second with 45 points from 22 matches, while Sporting ended with 19 points from 22 matches and go down again after getting promotion to the National League last season.
Dempo played for honour today as in the earlier round it had become clear that they would finish second in the NFL. And Dempo started off strongly with an inform Ishfaq Ahmed scoring the lead in the 12.minute. The talented Kashmiri youngster got the ball on the left wing, moved into the penalty area, dribbled past a few Sporting defenders before Ishfaq lobbed the ball into the goal. Ishfaq then doubled the lead in the 55.minute, when Dempo playmaker Mohammed Gaffar send Ishfaq free from the centreline and he outran and outsmarted his opponents to slot home. Substitute striker Alex Ambrose then got onto the scoresheet as he slotted home a chance in the 69.minute. Thereafter Dempo became complacent against an opponent, who were in a must-win situation to have a chance to stay in the league. Two goals in quick succession from Sporting captain Syed Rahim Nabi in the 79. and 85.minute were only of academic interest as Dempo didn't create any further hiccups. Nabi scored his first goal of a header, while the second of a penalty, after he had been brought down by Nigerian defender Majekodumni Bolaji.

8th National League - Goa: Mahindra United 3-2 Tollygunge Agragami - Goals: 1-0,3-1 Syed Altafuddin Ahmed (20',40'), 1-1 Jiten Rai (30'), 2-1 Raphael Patron Akakpo (35'), 3-2 Akeem Abul Alem (50').
Mahindra United won 3-2 against Tollygunge Agragami in a National League match at the Cooperage Ground, Mumbai. Though they lost Tollygunge were not relegated as their city rivals and direct opponents Mohammedan Sporting also lost. Tollygunge end the season in 10th position on 20 points from 22 matches. Mahindra meanwhile ended the league on a high with their 12th win of this NFL campaign. Mahindra finally come of age in the NFL as they finish third with 41 points. In the last few years always a lot was expected from Mahindra but in the end their failed.
Mahindra took the lead in the 20.minute, when Syed Altafuddin Ahmed scored but the lead lasted only ten minutes as a fine goal from Jiten Rai brought the equaliser for Tollygunge. But then a double strike in the 35. and 40.minute from Raphael Patron Akakpo and a second goal for Syed Altafuddin Ahmed gave Mahindra a 3-1 halftime lead. Tollygunge were only able to reduce the margin in the 50.minute when captain Akeem Abul Alem scored of a penalty. The penalty was given after Mahindra substitute keeper Sunder Raj Rajan had brought down Tollgunge midfielder Gauranga Datta.

2.Division National League - Bangalore - Stage II: EverReady Association 0-0 Border Security Force - Goals: none.
Coming into Phase Two, EverReady Association were looked upon as a sure-fire qualifiers for the NFL next season. But, if there is anything to go by their performance in their first Phase II match on Friday, much is left to be desired. They were held to a 0-0 draw by a less-fancied Border Security Force, Jalandhar in their 2.Division National League match at the Bangalore Football Stadium.
If only their skipper Earnest Chukwuma Jeremiah and Eugene Jlah Gray had been able to convert even one of the host of chances they got; if only, substitute Ratan Das and later Surajit Chakraborty had converted a sitter in the dying moments of the game, the result would have been different. The Amal Dutta-coached EverReady were clearly the better-equipped team on the day and it was evident from the fact that the securitymen were able to run into the rival citadel only on a few times in the whole of 90 minutes.
The match started on a bright note for the Calcutta outfit with Dulal Biswas almost coming near to scoring, but he failed to control the ball off a pass from Sankha Roy Choudhuri and hit the ball over the bar in the sixth minute. Ten minutes, later Gray's left-footed cross flew inches above the horizontal. BSF's only attempt at the rival goal came in the seventh minute when Amarjit Singh hit straight into the hands of EverReady goalkeeper Soumen Mondal. From then on, the BSF players were mere spectators as EverReady made a flurry of moves. In the 35th minute, Gray again missed a chance when his cross went wide of the far post and later he sent the ball into the waiting hands of BSF custodian Deepak Hazarika.
From the start of the second half, it was a Jeremiah 'no show' as he went on the rampage till the end and goofed up at the place where it mattered the most. He hit the ball to the side of the net or shot over it and once even into the stands, but he could never get the all-important goal for his team. He missed four easy chances and his team paid the price dearly. But the miss of the match came from the duo of Das and Chakraborty. In the dying minutes, Das made a foray into the rival defence from the left and managed to beat a couple of defenders. Hazarika tried to block a marching Das but the latter managed to take a strike at the goal. Unfortunately, the ball hit the near post and flew back into play. Finding Hazarika out of the goal, all Chakraborty had to do was to tap the ball in from the right. But agony it was, as he mistimed his shot and the ball flew over the bar.

Note-1: At least for the moment East Bengal Club coach Subhas Bhowmick has gotten away with no ban or punishment from the IFA. The new formed IFA governing body met today to decide if it's earlier decision to ban the coach for two years from entering the technical area at a football ground in any IFA affiliated tournament would hold or if it would punish the coach in any other way or just lift the ban. In the end Bhowmick was let-off but only indirectly. Bhowmick will be watched by the IFA in the coming six month's for any remarks he makes on the IFA of if he tarnishes the image of Bengal footballs governing body. If that happens then the ban would be applied.

Note-2: Some sad news has come out of Scotland. Former Churchill Brothers SC coach Danny McLennan died on Tuesday in Stirling, Scotland. McLennan was aged 79 and died after a short illness. After a long career as coach around the world, McLennan had come to Goa in the 1990s and nearly became champions in the first edition of the National League with Churchill Brothers.

Note-3: Leading players from Mumbai and its suburbs will feature in the inaugural Dr. Nitu Mandke Memorial-MDFA Zonal Knockout Football Tournament, to be conducted by the Mumbai District Football Association, at the Cooperage Ground, Mumbai from May 15 to 30, 2004.
Twenty-six zones will be participating in the tournament that offers the winners a cash prize of Rs. 25,000, runners-up Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 10,000 for the team finishing third.
The MDFA has divided Mumbai and its suburbs into the 26 zones, from Colaba to Thane, Virar and beyond. Zone XXVI will take on Zone IX in the opening match at 14.00 h on Saturday, May 15, to kick off the tournament. This will be followed by the match between Zone VIII and Zone XII at 16.00 h.
Each match up to the quarterfinals will have a duration of 80 minutes (40 minutes each half) with a 10-minute lemon break. The semifinals and final will be played over 90 minutes (45 minutes each half).
ZONE I (Colaba-Fort): Colaba, Flora Fountain, Fort Market, South of Churchgate and VT Stations. ZONE II (Dhobitalao-Girgaum): North of Churchgate station, Dhobitalao, Thakurdwar (South Girgaum church), North VT, Crawford Market, Masjid Station. ZONE III: Ghatkopar. ZONE IV (Madanpura): Khetwadi, Bombay Central, Madanpura, Mahalaxmi. ZONE V: Dombivili. ZONE VI (Parel): Parel, Lalbaug, Sewri, Worli, Naigaon. ZONE VII (Dadar): Dadar East & West, Shivaji Park. ZONE VIII (Matunga-Mahim): Matunga East & West, Sion, Dharavi, Koliwada and Mahim up to St. Michael's church. ZONE IX (Kurla): Kurla, Tilak Nagar, Ghatkopar. ZONE X (Chembur): Chembur, BARC, RCF, BPCL. ZONE XI (Vashi): Vashi, Nerul, CBD Belapur up to Airoli. ZONE XII (Panvel-Khargar): JNPT, Uran, Panvel, Khargar. ZONE XIII (Thane): Thane and Mumbra. ZONE XIV (Kalyan-Ambernath): Kalyan, Ulhasnagar, Ambernath. ZONE XV (Bandra-Khar West): Bandra West, Khar West up to Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana. ZONE XVI: Versova-Madh. ZONE XVII: Byculla. ZONE XVIII (Santacruz West-Vileparle West): Santacruz West, Vileparle West. ZONE XIX (Mulund-Bhandup): Powai, Mulund, Bhandup. ZONE XX (Chakala-Marol): Andheri East, Chakala, Marol. ZONE XXI (Versova-Amboli): Andheri West including Amboli, Lokhandwala and Versova. ZONE XXII (Jogeshwari-Goregaon): Jogeshwari East & West, Goregaon East & West. ZONE XXIII (Kandivili): Kandivili East & West. ZONE XXIV (Borivali): Borivali East & West. ZONE XXV (Malad): Malad East & West. ZONE XXVI (Vasai-Virar): Dahisar, Virar and beyond.

13. May
Tomorrow is the final day for the 8th National League with two matches to be held. And those matches are not only of academic interest. In the matches, Dempo SC-Mohammedan Sporting Club and Mahindra United-Tollygunge Agragami, it will be decided who will follow Indian Bank into the 2.Division and get relegated from India's Premier National League.
As things stand at the moment, Sporting are on that relegation spot with 19 points, while Tollygunge are hovering above them with only a point more in tenth place but with a 11 goal better goal difference in their favour. So for Sporting it's a do or die battle as only a win could keep them in the NFL, if Tollygunge don't win as otherwise nothing will help.
What could be of help to the two Calcutta sides is that their opponents are both playing the match for academic interest. Dempo SC is going to finish second in the league, while Mahindra third behind them. So they might not play the match as seriously as their earlier outings, but this is only speculation from our side. The coaches will surely try to ensure that their teams finish with a good result.

Note-1: Mohun Bagan fans are currently happy to see their team remain in the National League and hope the club will form a strong squad for the tasks of the upcoming season. But this hope will have suffered a big blow as the hopes to bring back Brazilian star striker Jose Barreto to the club are likely to fail.
Jose Barreto is currently in Malaysia on trial with Penang Panthers, a Malaysian Super League side. Barreto arrived in Malaysia on Friday and by Sunday had played in two trial matches, where he scored three goals and impressed the Penang coach Yunus Alif, who believes Barreto could be the answer to Penang's goal scoring problems. As things stand at the moment before the start of round 2 of the Malaysian Super League Barreto is likely to be signed.
So as Barreto's trial in Malaysia looks successful his return for the new Indian football seasons looks unlikely, though a rumour doing the rounds in Calcutta is that Barreto might return to India for the National League and sign for Bagan's city rivals East Bengal.

Note-2: The Inter-State Transfers will be held from May 15 to 31 this month and all major clubs in India are talking to players to either keep them or sign them but with the 2.Division running until May 26 some targets cannot be signed and the clubs fighting for promotion do not know if they are NFL or lower division clubs when signing players.
Champions East Bengal want to retain most of their squad and strengthen it further. Ghanian defender and actual captain Suley Musah will be released after he has been out for most of the NFL with an injury. Musah will be replaced by Goan side Cabral SC's Louis Aniweta, current on loan with NFL side Sporting Clube de Goa. East Bengal recruiter Debabrata Sarkar signed Aniweta on Tuesday, a day before the match against Sporting Clube. Also talks are said to have been held with Vasco SC duo Krishnan Ajayan and Vinu Jose. Contract extensions have been given to India goalkeeper Sangram Mukherjee and winger Malswam Tulunga. Meanwhile East Bengal might release their very successful Brazilian pair of midfielder Douglas da Silva and striker Cristiano Junior. Finances seem to be the reason behind the release. Therefore East Bengal are looking for new foreigners, especially a striker, though it is unclear how many foreigners can be signed for the new season.
Meanwhile Mohun Bagan want to and urgently need to replace runaway Brazilian Jose Barreto. It looked like that Ghanian sharp-shooter Yakubu Yusif would make the switch from Goa to Calcutta, but now it looks as if Yakubu could stay in Goa. Not with his club Churchill Brothers but Goan rivals Dempo SC. What makes the situation tricky is that Yakubu is said to have taken an advance payment from Bagan but he is said to have done that this season as well from Dempo before he returned to Churchill Brothers. Set to join Bagan are Mohammedan Sporting trio Dipendu Biswas, Syed Rahim Nabi and Amjad Ali Khan and Salgaocar's dependable defender Prasanth Jaggi.

12. May
In the latest FIFA Rankings for May INDIA remain on 139th spot among 204 countries, while in Asia we remain in 26th spot.
INDIA start their preparations for the away match against Japan in Saitama on June 9 in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers on May 20 with the probables camp kicking off in Goa. Important before the Japan match will be match practice and according to infos we at IndianFootball.Com have received the AIFF is working on a match or two against southeast Asian nation Indonesia on our way to Japan. For Indonesia it would also be good match practice as they face our south Asian neighbours Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile the second camp for the INDIA U17 in Goa ends on May 15, while the third next camp starts on June 5 in Bangalore. The likely UK tour is said to take place in the second week of July.

8th National League - Goa: Sporting Clube de Goa 1-2 East Bengal Club - Goals: 0-1,0-2 Cristiano Junior (46',60'), 1-2 Abdullatif Seriki (84').
Champions East Bengal Club finished their 8th National League campaign in style with a 2-1 away victory against debutants Sporting Clube de Goa at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. East Bengal finish the season on top of the NFL table with 49 points, equaling their record tally from last season. Sporting Clube meanwhile finish their first NFL season on 27 points and a credible eighth in the table.
East Bengal were the stronger of the two teams on display today and it showed right from the start but some good goalkeeping by Felix D'Souza denied East Bengal strikers Cristiano Junior and Baichung Bhutia from scoring. In injury time of the first half East Bengal were awarded a penalty when Sporting Clube defender Mehraj Din Wadoo brought down Baichung Bhutia but this resulted in Sporting Clube supporters in the south stand of the Nehru Stadium to try and invade the pitch but timely intervention from the police averted further trouble. But for Sporting Clube, the second such incident in weeks, this could mean further trouble with the NFL organising committee and AIFF. The match had to be halted but when it restarted Brazilian Junior made no mistake to score the lead from the spot. On the hour mark Junior scored his teams second goal of a cross from the right from Malswam Tulunga, his 15th goal in the NFL resulted in Cristiano winning the golden boot of the NFL top scorer, snatching it away from the top scorer of the last two seasons Ghanian Yakubu Yusif, who scored a goal less this time.
Sporting Clube were able to reduce the deficit of a Abdullatif Seriki penalty in the 84.minute. Nigerian striker Seriki had been brought down by East Bengal keeper Sandip Nandy, which resulted in the penalty. Before the end of the match East Bengal's Chandan Das received marching orders in the 88.minute.

2.Division National League - Bangalore - Stage II: State Bank of Travancore 0-1 Fransa FC - Goal: 0-1 Ivan Fiel da Silva (10').
It was State Bank of Travancore who had an upper hand on the day. But, their best was not enough to beat Fransa FC, Goa, who registered a narrow 1-0 victory over in the second match of the Phase II 2.Division National League at the Bangalore Football Stadium on Wednesday. Fransa have to thank their Brazilian striker Ivan Fiel Da Silva, who scored the all-important goal in the 10.minute of the match. Ivan, who had missed Phase I due to an injury, replaced his countrymate Emerson F Da Silva, and was the best striker among either of the teams.
The SBT players have themselves to blame as they made the right moves, found the gaps in the Fransa defence, took the ball to the goal, but failed to find the net. Had they converted two chances - the best they got in the match - in the last 15 minutes, the script would have been different for SBT. But M Mohammed Rafi and Sylvester Ignatius failed to score the goals and it did not help the matters for their team.
In the 10.minute, the referee Dinesh Nair awarded a free kick to Fransa after one of their players was fouled just outside the box. Ivan, who took the kick, packed it with a powerful punch and sent the ball soaring to the top corner of the far post. From then on, Fransa began to slow down things and SBT played and missed. In the 15.minute, SBT's Abdul Basheer headed the ball, only to see the ball go wide of the post. Fransa's first choice goalkeeper Juje Siddi suffered an injury and was replaced by Vikranth Sharma in the 15.minute, but this did not seem to bother them too much. Seven minutes before the break, a cross from Lanel Thomas from the left went straight into Sharma's safe hands.
The tempo increased a bit after the break with SBT going all out in search of a goal. In the 51.minute, SBT got a golden chance as Ignatius had only the goalkeeper to beat. But he failed and the goalkeeper also failed to latch on to the ball. This prompted Ignatius to make another attempt, but an alert Fransa defender Marcos Rogerio Secco made a goalline save to deny SBT the 'goal'.
At the other end, Ivan's long-range shot from the centre of the field, flew a few inches over the goal in the 65.minute. In the 77.minute, after receiving a pass from Abdul Hakkim, substitute Mohammed Rafi, running from the left, failed to shoot the ball properly and hit into the side of the net. Six minutes later, a long range shot by Ignatius hit the near post much to the agony of his SBT teammates and later Hakkim hit the ball wide, off a Thomas free kick.
Meanwhile, Goa Sports Minister Francisco Mickky Pacheco, who is also the chairman of Fransa FC has announced a cash reward of Rs 25,000 to each of the player, if the team qualifies for the premier Division of the National League.
"We have everything to play for. I am confident that we will be able to make it," Mickky Pacheco told a Goan paper from Bangalore where he was monitoring his team's progress.
After a rest day on Thursday due to countin of votes, Calcutta's EverReady will take on Border Security Force, Jalandhar on Friday.

Elliot Shield College Football Tournament - Calcutta University Ground - Final: Heramba Chandra College 1-0 Umesh Chandra College - Goal: 1-0 Joydeep Bose (42').

Note-1: The Asian Football Confederation celebrated it's 50th anniversary over the weekend in the Malaysian capital Kuala Kumpur, where the AFC headquarters is based.
Among those present were FIFA president Sepp Blatter, AFC officials and representatives from all national federations. From India the AIFF was represented by secretary Alberto Colaco and treasurer AR Khaleel.
AFC is happy about the development of Asian football over the last few years but want to make an even bigger mark on the world stage in the future. And the two most important countries for this development are China and India, were one-third of the world's populations lives. And central to that objective is a desire to get tens of millions more people playing football in the world's two most populous countries. So good times are ahead for football in India, if the AFC takes the proactive role it talks about in our footballs development.
The weekend was not spend on functions and parties but also on football. On Sunday at the AFC House Vision Jordan, Vision China and Vision India were presented to the Vision Asia Advisory Council Meeting as well as representatives of the respective National Associations.
In an urge to help facilitate the growth of football in the three named countries, the respective national and state associations were all heavily scrutinised based on Asian Football Confederation and FIFA guidelines.
Statistics were presented to the Council Meeting, with key points such as television and sponsor revenue just some of the many elements discussed over the weekend. Other important issues were much deliberated as well. The national league was given specific attention in the case of India, a host of other factors contributing to the growth of the game in a country such as stadiums, fixture schedule, competitions, grassroots and futsal were all discussed.
The key statement on India was the potential was big as has been proven on some occasions in the past but due to lack of resources and sponsorship, administrative organisation and other issues, the game could grow properly in India.
The key focus area has been the Indian National league, which the Vision Asia working group calls on the AIFF to be restructured. The current 12 team NFL held in four month's is too small and held in a too short time. Other recommendations on youth development and other areas were also made.
The AIFF listened to what the experts had to say on Indian football and said it would come back to the Vision Asia team with their answer and say which recommendations could be implemented or not.
The AIFF also got down to work as it wants to work on the format and size of the National League of the future.
The AIFF is now going to hold informal meetings with NFL clubs, state FAs, the media and other involved in the NFL to get their views and ideas on the future National League
The first such meeting was held at Margao yesterday and was attended by IFA secretary Subroto Dutta; Goa FA secretary Savio Messias; Gujarat FA secretary and AIFF disciplinary committee chairman Hardev Jadeja, INDIA coach Stephen Constantine and representatives of NFL champions East Bengal Club and the four Goan NFL clubs Dempo SC, Vasco SC, Sporting Clube de Goa and Salgaocar SC.
Among the general suggestions made was to enable teams from states other than Goa and West Bengal to participate in the National League, which would mean expanding the league to 16 maybe even 18 teams. Other problems of the NFL mentioned were issues related to travelling, the tight scheduling, and the calendar. The participation of the national team and top clubs in international and Asian competitions weren't helping either in the scheduling.
All present agreed that proper TV coverage was the need of the hour to make football more popular for fans and attract bigger corporate sponsorship.
Further such meetings would be held in the coming two months to get views from others involved with the NFL and the game in general in India.

Note-2: The following story was carried by a vernacular Bengali daily
The GOAL society for orphans near Sealdah in Calcutta is run and funded by a private organisation from Ireland. The reports says that East Bengal's Nigerian midfielder Mike Okoro has been deeply involved with this organisation for the last six months. Okoro is said to pay for the 'Sunday food' for the 50 orphans (all small children) every week! Okoro says that he first went to that home with his Irish girl friend and since then he has been deeply moved by the state of the children and has vowed to do as much as he can for them. A really appreciable effort indeed!
What comes as a surprise is that Okoro's East Bengal teammates knew nothing about this good work by their teammate and only heard about it when Okoro gave the interview.

11. May
8th National League - Ludhiana: JCT Mills 0-0 Mahindra United - Goals: none.
JCT Mills and Mahindra United played out a goalless draw in a National League match at the floodlit Guru Nanak Stadium, Ludhiana. JCT end their engagements in the 8th National League in fifth place with 33 points, while Mahindra's quest for a second place finish ended with the 21st league match as before the final match the Jeepmen are four points behind Dempo SC on 38 points.
JCT had nothing much to play in todays match. Before the match the Phagwara Millmen were insured a fifth place finish, down a spot from last seasons fourth place finish. But for Mahindra a win would have kept their chances alive to finish second behind champions East Bengal. So the match started with a resolute Mahindra going for a win against a depleted JCT team missing Jo Paul Ancheri, due to two yellow cards, and IM Vijayan, due to injury. JCTs Ghanian keeper Mansuru Mohammad had another strong day under the bar, while his defenders KV Dhanesh and Nigerian Musa Aliu alert of the potential treath from the Mahindra attack. Mahindra's had the first look at goal of the match but Ghanian striker Felix Aboagye and international midfield Shanmugan Venkatesh could score of their chances. Thereafter seasoned JCT striker Nigerian Stephen Abarowei had his chances to score, first of a header and then a long ranger, but Mahindra's keeper Naseem Akhtar denied JCT a goal. In the second session action was mainly confined to the midfield and the best chance was wasted by junior international Manjit Singh when he shot wide infront of an open goal.

8th National League - Chennai: Indian Bank 1-4 Mohun Bagan AC - Goals: 0-1 Mehtab Hussain (2'), 0-2,0-3 Noel Tafadzwa Kaseka (54',65'), 0-4 Sunil Chetri (84'), 1-4 Ravi Babu (87').
The most important news for Mohun Bagan fans first: Bagan have avoided relegation from the National League. Mohun Bagan scored their most important victory of the season, a 4-1 away win against relegated Indian Bank in a National League match at the Nehru Stadium, Chennai. With this win Bagan end their dismal campaign in the 8th National League on a high note and finish on 24 points from 22 matches, finally clear of the relegation spots but they finish ninth in the table, the worst finish by the three-time former NFL champions. Indian Bank meanwhile leave the NFL with only eight points from 22 matches and leave Chennai without a NFL side for at least a season.
From the onset it was clear Bagan wanted those three points to ensure their survival in the NFL and in a relegated side like Indian Bank they would be the right opponent to get those points. Bagan took a very early second minute lead, when a Renedy Singh freekick met with the head of Mehtab Hussain and sailed into the goal. Bagan controlled proceedings against a weak Indian Bank team, which couldn't penetrate the Bagan midfield and when it did, the defence line stood hold. But a one goal lead is always a danger, so after the breather Bagan went to to score a second goal to ensure victory. And a double strike by Zimbabwean midifielder Noel Tafadzwa Kaseka came. First in the 54.minute Noel scored of one-two double between Manitombi Singh and Mehtab Hussain, and then a solo effort marked Bagan's third goal in the 65.minute. But this wasn't the end of the rout as Sunil Chetri added a fourth in the 84.minute. Still the final say was with the Bankmen as Ravi Babu's perfectly taken freekcik curled into the Bagan goal. The final curtains for the Bankmen came a few minutes later after their consolation goal.

2.Division National League - Bangalore - Stage II: FC Kochin 1-2 Hindustan Aeronautics Limited - Goals: 1-0 Philip Tarlue (76'), 1-1 Rajendra Prasad (84'), 1-2 Dayanand (87').
Home team Hindustan Aeronautics Limited roared back from a one-goal deficit to script a thrilling 2-1 victory over FC Kochin in the first match of Phase II 2.Division National League at the Bangalore Football Stadium here on Tuesday. Trailing till the 84.minute after FC Kochin went up in the 76.minute off a Philip Tarlue goal, HAL came back with two goals in the space of three minutes to seal the victory. The goals for the winning team were scored by Rajendra Prasad and skipper Dayananad.
The match began on a slow note and the players were not helped by a slippery field thanks to continuous rain. While Tarlue was the centre of FC Kochin's play with his deft moves, Dayanand was once again the hero for the Aeronauticsmen. In the fourth minute, FC Kochin skipper Mohammed Shafeeq made the first real move, but his shot at the goal went straight into the hands of HAL goalkeeper Amit Sinha Roy, who had a good day at the office. At the opposite end, the HAL trio of Dayanand, Rajendra Prasad and Xavier Vijayakumar made freequent raids on the rival goal but failed to find the net.
A header by Rajendra Prasad off a Alex Shamaki pass from the right was saved by FC Kochin custodian V Santosh in the eighth minute. A couple of minutes, a header from Satish Kumar failed to get past Santosh and later Alex failed to head home the ball after receiving a pass from the centre. After both teams were locked 0-0 at the break, the game still looked wide open. The FC Kochin defence looked a bit shaky while the two HAL defenders, Brazilian Du and Obinno Winners, were in great form. Soon after the start of the second half, Du missed a header off a Dayanand pass and for FC Kochin, M Genius Zenith hit the ball over the net.
The match suddenly came alive after the first goal in the 76.minute. FC Kochin's Akbar Singh took a corner and his kick was to such precision that Tarlue, who was stationed at the near post, had little trouble in heading the ball home.
From then on, the game took an interesting turn with FC Kochin trying to keep their lead intact and HAL trying to get the equaliser. They succeeded finally in the 84.minute. Alex gave a pass to Dayanand who was stationed inside the box. Dayanand in turn, tried to hit the ball but slipped and was able to pass the ball to a charging Rajendra Prasad who beat the FC Kochin defender Shivamani - the latter slipping near the goal - and made the score 1-1. Three minutes later, running from the right, Xavier gave a pass from just outside the box to Dayanand at the left. Dayanand managed to head the ball home, beating a leaping Santosh to the jubilation of the crowd, whose joy knew no bounds.

Note-1: Two superpowers and unabashed rivals of Indian football - Goa and Bengal - joined hands and put pen to paper in the larger interest of the game in India.
Last night, the Goa FA and the Indian Football Association (Bengal governing body), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), agreeing to exchange youth football teams and referees, for a three-year period.
"Both the GFA and IFA have the interest of Indian football at heart. And this collaboration of two giants was natural," GFA president Shivanand Salgaocar told sports journalists after inking the MoU. "Refereeing is an important part of the game and we need to have a look at it. Without youth development, football cannot make any progress," Shivanand added.
IFA secretary Subrata Dutta described the occasion as historic and said both (GFA and IFA) could make things happen in Indian football with positive attitude. "We both think alike. The coming together of the two giants was inevitable," he maintained. According to the MoU, the GFA and IFA will send any of its two age group teams to participate in tournaments, organised by the other association with each team playing atleast three matches during each visit, over a period of seven days. While all costs and expenses towards travailing will be borne by the visiting association, decent accommodation/boarding, lodging, medical expenses and local transportation will be paid by the host association.
The GFA and IFA will also ensure that atleast four FIFA/National referees of each association will be sent to supervise a minimum of 10 matches at the other State, provided not more than two referees will be sent at a time. The host association would be responsible and liable for the safety and security of the referees, the MoU stated. The host association would pay to each of the referees a honorarium of Rs 500 for conducting and supervising the matches apart from a daily allowance of Rs 200 limited to the duration of the stay.
As and when required, both IFA and GFA would hold seminars or programmes for development of youth football subject to terms and conditions mutually agreed from time to time.
"The collaboration between Goa and Bengal is essential for the upliftment of football in India," AIFF secretary Alberto Colaco said, before continuing, "without Goa and Bengal's participation, AIFF cannot push Indian football forward."
When asked whether the coming together of the two superpowers should have happened a lot earlier, Subrata Dutta said it was essential to look at the positives. "We cannot afford to look behind. The only way for Indian football is forward," he stated.
Among those who were present for the conclave include East Bengal coach Subhas Bhowmick, East Bengal manager Swapan Bal, GFA Youth Development committee chairman Anthony Botelho, Vasco SC patron Noel da Lima Leitao, Vasco president Vinod Parkkot, Jury of Appeal chairman Albino Valles and GFA member Sanjeev Nagvenkar.
A positive step forward for Indian football if the superpowers of the game in our country join hands for the development of the game on different levels.

Note-2: The IFA is yet to decide on the suspension of East Bengal coach Subhas Bhowmick.
"The decision will be taken after consultation with the new office-bearers and also the members of the governing body," IFA secretary Subrata Dutta said in Goa last night.
The IFA disciplinary committee, had decided to debar Subhas Bhowmick from sitting in the technical area, reserve bench or inside-fence of any IFA-organised meet for a period of two years, beginning May 16, for certain derogatory remarks against the association. Subsequently, Subhas Bhowmick had appealed against the harsh punishment and explained before the governing body as to what he exactly meant by the remarks.
"We will decide before May 16. Hopefully the decision will be taken on Thursday or Friday," Subrata said further.
Contrary to the ban, East Bengal's executive committee, has in the meanwhile, decided to retain Bhowmick as coach for the next season. Bhowmick, one of the rare success stories of Indian football coaching, has won two consecutive National League titles with East Bengal.
"We are not concerned about the ban," East Bengal manager Swapan Bal said in Goa. "We know that the decision will be in our favour simply because Bhowmick has said nothing wrong," he added.

Note-3: The differences between East Bengal Club and their player Douglas da Silva vanished today as the club and player agreed terms for the last match of the season. The differences had come-up due to lack of communication and misunderstandings. Douglas' contract had ended on April 30 and the Brazilian wanted to negotiate terms for the extra matches in May. Douglas wanted to be paid per match in advance and when his terms weren't met, he just didn't travel with the team to Goa. This resulted in the club asking the player to travel to Goa on his own costs as he could only be reembursed after the return from Goa but Douglas turned down the request. This led to East Bengal sending out a show cause notice on Saturday and after meeting with East Bengal secretary Kalyan Majumdar today, all was sorted. Douglas would be available for selection for the AFC Cup match on May 18 against Negri Sembilan and the club wouldn't impose any punishment or fine on the player.

9. May
8th National League - Goa: Churchill Brothers SC 1-0 East Bengal Club - Goal: 1-0 Santa Singh (75').
Churchill Brothers SC scored a 1-0 victory against champions East Bengal Club in a inconsequential National League match at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. Churchill Brothers SC ended their campaign on 36 points and are ensured a fourth place finish. For East Bengal, who had won the league title in the last round, it was the first loss in the NFL since December 27 of last year against Dempo SC. East Bengal stay on 46 points from 21 matches.
At a well-filled Nehru Stadium both teams played at a medium to slow pace as continues rain throughout the match didn't allow any constructive football. East Bengal fielded a depleted side and before the half hour mark, the team had to replace Deepak Kumar Mondal, Muttath Suresh and Anit Ghosh due to injury and just before the breather East Bengal lost their influencial Nigerian midfielder Mike Okoro due to a red card. Okoro is said to have abused the referee.
Churchill Brothers had more of the chances, more so as East Bengal had to do with a make-shift defence and then in the second half with only 10 men. But Ghanian strikers Yakubu Yusif and Benjamin Ansah couldn't use their chances. The winner for Churchill Brothers came in the 75.minute when midfielder Santa Singh scored of a pass from Rajesh Meetei.

8. May
8th National League - Goa: Vasco SC 2-0 Mohammedan Sporting Club - Goals: 1-0 Krishnan Nair Ajayan (80'), 2-0 Amaechi Nwabunwanne Tochukwu (90+').
Vasco SC scored a 2-0 against relegation-threathened Mohammedan Sporting Club in a National League match at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. Vasco end their 8th National League engagements with 28 points and are currently ranked sixth in the league but could drop a spot if Sporting Clube de Goa win their last match against East Bengal Club. Meanwhile Mohammedan Sporting Club remain eleventh in the league on 19 points from 21 matches and have to win their last match against Dempo SC to stay in contention of avoiding relegation.
Both sides had their chances to score but their strikers were mostly off target. Sporting could have taken a early 3.minute lead but their Nigerian striker Okoli Onyeka Odofa who had snatched the ball from Vasco defender Agnelo Colaco couldn't score past a stranded keeper Rogerio Ramos and only hit the side netting. Vasco's best chance was wasted by a hardworking Dennis Cabral when his shot went straight to Sporting keeper Gumpe Rime. Vasco were reduced to 10 men when Susanth Mathew received his second card in the 73.minute but only seven minutes later Vasco took the lead when their captain Selwyn Fernandes' throw-in was back-headed by Brazilian Marcos Pereira to find Krishnan Nair Ajayan, who scored past keeper Gumpe Rime. Only four minutes later Sporting were also reduced to 10 men, when Amandeep Singh received marching orders for also a second bookable offence. In injury time substitute Nigerian striker Amaechi Nwabunwanne Tochukwu made sure of the win for Vasco when he scored of a pass from Dennis Cabral.

7. May
The draw for the final PHASE II of the 2.Division National League to be played in Bangalore from May 11 to 26 has been released by the AIFF. The top two teams from each of the three Groups of PHASE I will now play out the two promotion spots for next seasons National League. The six teams are Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and FC Kochin from Group A, EverReady Association and Border Security Force from Group B and State Bank of Travancore and Fransa FC for Group C.
>> 2.division nfl 2003/04 - phase I schedule

2.Division National League - Bangalore - Stage I, Group A: Jammu&Kashmir Bank 0-1 Assam State Electricity Board - Goal: 0-1 Nitu Narzary (71').

6. May
The AIFF today announced 27 probables for the 2006 World Cup qualification match against Japan in Saitama on June 9. The probables camp starts on May 20 in Goa with national coach Stephen Constantine having 20 days to prepare his team for the tough away trip to the "Land of the Rising Sun".
Some players had to be left out due to injury, among them East Bengal's Muttath Suresh and Alvito D'Cunha, while James Singh and Krishnan Ajayan, who were part of the India team against Oman, were left out of the squad as is Tomba Singh. Meanwhile Sameer Naik comes back to the probables after injury. With their good performances in the NFL some new faces are among the probables. They are keepers Mark Mascarenhas and Abhijit Mondal; and defender Covan Lawrence, brother of Climax Lawrence. Back among the India probables after nearly three years is RC Prakash, who has been performing consistently for Dempo off late. Also included among the probables are talented TFA boys and India Junior internationals Habibur Rahman Mondal, Debabrata Roy, Jerry Zirsanga and junior captain Gourmangi Moirangtem Singh.
PROBABLES: GK: Sangram Mukerjee (East Bengal Club), Naseem Akhtar (Mahindra United), Prasanta Dora (Mohun Bagan), Mark Mascarenhas (Churchill Brothers SC), Abhijit Mondal (Dempo SC). DF: Mahesh Gawli, Deepak Kumar Mondal, Debjit Ghosh (all East Bengal Club), Habibur Rahman Mondal, Debabrata Roy (both Tata Football Academy), Satish Bharti (Mohammedan Sporting Club), Selwyn Fernandes (Vasco SC), Covan Lawrence (Mahindra United). MF: Climax Lawrence, Jatin Singh Bhist (both Salgaocar SC), Gourmangi Moirangtem Singh, Jerry Zirsanga (both Tata Football Academy), Subhas Chakraborty (East Bengal Club), Sameer Naik (Dempo SC), Renedy Singh (Mohun Bagan), Shanmugam Venkatesh (Mahindra United), Jo Paul Ancheri (JCT Mills). FW: Baichung Bhutia, Bijen Singh (both East Bengal Club), Abhishek Yadav (Mahindra United), RC Prakesh (Dempo SC), Ashim Biswas (Mohun Bagan).

8th National League - Goa: Salgaocar SC 1-1 JCT Mills - Goals: 0-1 Harvinder Singh (36'), 1-1 Felix Ibrebru (50').
An entertaining match between former National League champions Salgaocar SC and JCT Mills ended in a one-all at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. Salgaocar, who today ended their league engagements with 27 points from 22 matches, are currently placed sixth but could finish a low eighth in the league, where they had finished second last season. JCT Mills meanwhile are on 32 points from 21 matches with a match to go and a chance to finish fourth. Currently the Phagwara Millmen are fifth.
In a fast-paced match JCT took the lead in the 36.minute against the run of play. An alert JCT striker Harvinder Singh stole the ball from Tomba Singh, who wanted to chest down a Baldeep Singh floater, and shot the ball home. Salgaocar thereafter went for the equaliser and got the goal in the 50.minute when Nigerian striker Felix Ibrebru was send clear by Jatin Singh Bisht and Felix scored past JCT keeper Mansuru Mohammad. Both sides had their chances to win the match but both couldn't score thereafter.

2.Division National League - Bangalore - Stage I, Group A: FC Kochin 3-1 Assam State Electricity Board - Goals: 1-0,3-0 Samuel Jackson (29',76'), 2-0 Theodore Wrobeh (68'), 3-1 Utpal Basumatary (82').
FC Kochin was not at its brilliant best. But they played with controlled aggression and with wet underfoot conditions they did not rick injuries. The 3-1 victory was enough to take them to the final phase where the 'Super Six' will fight it out for the two berths. The 2.Division National League match against Assam State Electricity Board in the Group A Phase I was played under intermittent drizzle at the Bangalore Football Stadium on Thursday. With this victory, FC Kochin follow HAL from Group A into Phase II which commences in Bangalore from May 11. State Bank of Travancore, Fransa FC, EverReady Association and Border Security Force are the other teams to qualify for Phase II.
It was a slow-placed game in the first half with both teams struggling to get going in the rain. The Kochin and Assam players had nothing new to offer and though they made raids on the opposition citadel, it ended in a failure.
Just a minute before the half-hour mark, FC Kocin got the opening goal of the match. Their skipper Mohammed Shafeeq took a free quick from way outside the box and the ball whizzed past the head of M Genius Zenith who was placed at the near post. Though Zenith failed in his attempt, an alert Samuel Jackson headed the ball which first tapped the post before going in. From then on, the proceedings were dull and it looked as if FC Kochin would have a tough time with only a slender lead.
In the early stages of the second half, a hit by Akbar Singh off a KV Vipin pass went past the far post and a few minutes later, FC Kochin missed another chance. In the 68.minute, Liberian Theodore Wrobeh headed in the ball into the far post after receiving a pass from Zenith to make the score 2-0 in favour of FC Kochin. Eight minutes later, the Kerala team went up 3-0 after Jackson scored his second goal. Running in from the right, he got a pass from Theodore from outside the box. Once he received the ball, all Jackson had to do was to beat the ASEB goalkeeper Dinesh Basumatary and he did so with ease and grece.
Despite being down 0-3, ASEB tried very hard to get back into the game, but could not rise to the occasion. Their only saving grace came in the 82.minute when skipper Utpal Basumatary reduced the margin. Sanjeeva Rongpi, went in for a forward pass and got into possession just before the rival goalie, but before he made an attempt at the goal he unfortunately slipped. However despite lying flat on the ground, he was alert enough to kick the ball to a charging Utpal who had no trouble in putting the ball home as FC Kochin goalkeeper V Santosh was out of position.

2.Division National League - Kochi - Stage I, Group C: State Bank of Travancore 0-0 Fransa FC - Goals: none.
Fransa FC drew goalless with State Bank of Travancore to qualify for the final phase of the 2.Division National League. At Nehru Stadium, Kochi, both teams did not exert much and took it very easy. Incessant showers made life difficult for the players on the field but the draw was good enough to qualify for the final phase of the qualifiers, at Bangalore, starting May 11.
SBT had already qualified prior to the Fransa encounter, today, while the draw enabled Fransa to garner eight points and finish ahead of Air India, Mumbai, who fell a point short.
"It was difficult to play today," Shabbir Ali said after the match. "The ball was mostly confined to the midfield. We kept the ball to ourselves since it was difficult to move forward," disclosed Shabbir adding that, at the start, they relied on long balls but without much success.
The match was played under incessant rains and the waterlogging in the ground hindered the ball movement. There was no worthwhile move by either sides and the ball remained mostly in the midfield. Fransa FC now travel to Bangalore where they will meet State Bank of Travancore, on May 12, in the first match. Other teams who have qualified for the final phase include FC Kochin (Kerala), Border Security Force (Punjab), EverReady Sports Association (Calcutta) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited SC (Bangalore) to play for the two promotion places for the National League.
"We are going there with a positive frame of mind. We will be up against tougher opposition (at Bangalore) but we consider ourselves no weaklings. We are as good as anybody else," Shabbir maintained.

Note-1: ESPN-Star Sports will be showing the EURO2004 championships live on their TV channels.
At a Calcutta Hotel ESPN-Star Sports today announced their plans for India. Present at the press conference were India captain Baichung Bhutia and India teammate Renedy Singh. The duo would be doing promotion for the EURO2004 coverage across the country. Further Baichung would be at the Singapore studio of ESPN as an expert analyser for the whole duration of the tournament as he has done for Ten Sports for the 2002 World Cup.
Also the commentary of the matches would be combined in English and Hindi. The Hindi commentary is seen to get bigger audiences in India, of people who understand the commentary
The two players alos named their favourites at the tournament. For Baichung France are his fav