31. March
Sukhwinder Singh will return to become again the Indian national coach until the 2006 Doha Asian Games, when in June 2005 the term of current national coach Stephen Constantine ends. This means that Constantine's predecessor will also be his successor due to the lack of suitable coaches. The AIFF wanted to continue with a new foreign coach, but the federation didn't get any application from what they thought was a suitable, qualified coach from abroad, who fitted into their budget. Sukhi, as Sukhwinder Singh is called by friends, had been the front-runner to return to coach India over the last few weeks as qualifications of some applicants had to be questioned, while other were just too costly for the AIFF. In the end the final decision was taken quickly by the AIFF top brass.
If Sukhwinder, who is currently also club coach at JCT Mills, would leave his club and only take charge of the national team was not known. In his earlier stint as India coach he had doubled as India and JCT coach, and it had worked then.
The above was disclosed in Calcutta today at a press conference by the AIFF president Das Munshi. Further he said that Sukhwinder would have to work along with a new to be formed selection committee in choosing the team. "This has been decided to make the team selection a collective decision," Dasmunshi said. This has been done as certain quarters had not been happy the way Constantine himself had choosen the team with a selection committee.
Das Munshi also didn't rule out a foreign coach coming in to look after the age-group sides while Sukhwinder is in-charge of the senior side. Interestingly Sukhwinder will mainly work with the Olympic squad as the Asian Games like the Olympics are an under-23 tournament with only three players over 23 permitted. The AIFF would also arrange for international exposure to the team ahead of the Asian Games next year.
Meanwhile the AIFF would hold an exhibition match at the Saltlake Stadium, Calcutta on June 4 to contribute money for the FIFA/AFC Tsunami fund for construction of a football training centre at the Lapaty village of Car Nicobar. This idea would be put forward to FIFA and the AFC as a contribution to Tsunami-affected football on the Andaman&Nicobar Islands. The match would be played between a Baichung Bhutia XI and an IM Vijayan XI and not between India and an Asian Allstar XI as had been made public earlier. The AIFF is trying to bring in some former football stars like Lothar Matthaeus, Marco van Basten, Gabriel Batistuta and Bebeto as guest players.
The AIFF president also said that the Nehru Cup would be revived in December 2005 with the Kerala FA signing a MoU with the AIFF to host the event eight years after Kochi had hosted the last event in 1997.
In another interesting statement the AIFF president made was that the National League would have to be made a professional league by 2006 as per AFC directive to push football further in India. This would mean the 10th NFL could see some changes and would not be played as per AIFF plans announced earlier.

9th National League - Goa: Churchill Brothers SC 0-4 Sporting Clube de Goa - Goals: 0-1 Bibiano Fernandes (64'), 0-2,0-3 Joseph Pereira (72',74'), 0-4 Adebayo Adewusi (79').
If they weren't taken seriously as a potential NFL title contender yet, then it will surely have changed today as Sporting Clube trashed Goan rivals Churchill Brothers SC 4-0 in a second half blitz in a 9th National League away match at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. With today's match Round 14 was completed and Sporting Clube as third were able to reduce the gap to the top duo as they now have 26 points. Meanwhile Churchill Brothers continue to remain in the relegation zone as tenth with 13 points.
Sporting Clube didn't play well in the first half today they had no real chances in a not to interesting affair. Churchill Brothers were no better and they had an anxious moment as their Ghanian star striker Yakubu Yusif banged his head onto the turf after he had attempted to connect a Sanjay Parte cross in the 17.minute. Yakubu lay on the ground and had to be stretchered off with the medical team at the ground taking care of him. The Churchill management meanwhile were a worried lot with club patron Churchill Alemao and president Joaquim Alemao rushing down to the sidelines from the VVIP area. But all was well in the end as Yakubu came back onto the ground after a few minutes of regrouping.
After the breather Sporting Clube came out with the aim to get a win, while Churchill Brothers wanted to get away with a draw. Sporting Clube opened the scoring in the 64.minute through midfielder Bibiano Fernandes, who later for his performance got the "Man of the Match" award. Down by a goal, Churchill just caved-in with Sporting Clube taking full advantage to add another three goals in the next 15 minutes. First it was a double strike from midfielder Joseph Pereira in the 72. and 74.minute, while Nigerian midfielder Adebayo Adewusi added a fourth in the 79.minute strike past Churchill keeper Vinay Singh.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Bibiano Fernandes (Sporting Clube).
Detailed information and pictures are available at the >>IndianFootball.Com NFL Special.

Note-1: At the above mentioned press conference the AIFF president Das Munshi also talked about money raised for deceased Cristiano Junior. So far Rs 1,4 million have been raised with another Rs 400,000 expected from the Dempo Group, for whose club Cristiano played for. The AIFF has been in touch with the Brazilian FA (CBF) and also the Brazilian embassy in Delhi to find out to whom the money should be send.
This comes as news has come out of Brazil that there remain questions on the death of Cristiano and the circumstances which led to it. What has only been released now is that Cristiano had been taken to the HOSMAT hospital after the Federation Cup quarterfinals against Churchill Bros after he complained of feeling giddy. The Brazilian media claim that Cristiano was forced to play, though he wasn't 100% match fit and also that the contact with Mohun Bagan keeper Subrata Pal in the final could have worsened any injury sustained from the earlier impact. These reports are quite surprising as an earlier post-mortem in mid-March had come to the same result as the one in Bangalore.

Note-2: Jo Paul Ancheri, who has been India's utility man for nearly the last decade as he can play in so many different positions, has been chosen to be given the T Abubabcker Football Award 2005. The former India captain, who currently is playing for Calcutta side Mohun Bagan, will receive Rs 10,000 as part of the award.

Note-3: Due to bad weather in Manipur the final of the 2nd Tiddim Trophy between defending champions NEROCA and Southern Sporting Union, Singjamei had to been postponed. The final would now be held on April 10.

30. March
9th National League - Goa: Vasco SC 1-2 JCT Mills - Goals: 1-0 Francis Fernandes (63'), 1-1 Julius Irabor Akpele (70'),1-2 Alexander Jebba (82').
JCT Mills rallied from a goal down to win 2-1 away to Vasco SC in a 9th National League match at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. Former champions JCT moved into fifth spot with now 21 points from 14 matches, while Vasco remain in the relegation zone as eleventh with only 12 points from the same number of matches.
There wasn't much of goalmouth action in the first 45 minutes as both teams tried to control the midfield. Vasco had their best chance five minutes into the match as their Brazilian playmaker Sidney Santana Rodrigues took a freekick which was palmed-away by the JCT's Ghanian keeper Mansuru Mohammed. JCT had their only real chance of the first half in the 13.minute of a counter-attack, when Baldeep Singh broke free on the right to make an attempt at the goal but seasoned Virender Singh brought of a fine save under the bar.
After the breather the match picked-up and goals where scored. Vasco took the lead in the 63.minute through the first NFL goal from teenager Francis Fernandes. But the lead lasted only seven minutes as JCT's Nigerian defender scored of a rebound as Virender Singh couldn't clear a Sukhwinder Singh freekick. JCT then scored again in the 82.minute when substitute Jaswinder Singh moved up the flank to square the ball to striker Alexander Jebba who made no mistake to score the winner.
VASCO: Virender Singh, Agnelo Colaco, Vinu Jose, Samson Fernandes (Alex Ambrose), Nicolau COlaco, Sushanth Mathew, Sidney Santana Rodrigues, Francis Fernandes, K Anees (Levy Coelho), K Aseem (Anthony Pereira), Fabio Xavier Soares.
JCT: Mansuru Mohammed, Daljit Singh, Julius Irabor Akpele, KV Dhanesh, Taranjit Singh, Sukhjinder Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Ram Pal, Baldeep Singh, Harvinder Singh (Jaswinder Singh), Alexander Jebba.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Alexander Jebba (JCT).
Detailed information and pictures are available at the >>IndianFootball.Com NFL Special.

Note-1: Have you heard of Futsal? If not, then you will get to know about it now.
Total Sports Asia and the IFA are bringing for the first time ever the game of Futsal to West Bengal. And to explain Futsal to you easily, it can be seen as an easy, modern indoor version of football, which is played five a-side and matches are of 40 minute duration. The game is much faster than the 11 a-side outdoor game, many more goals are scored and technical abilities do help in this game. In West Bengal meanwhile it will be an outdoor version of Futsal, as indoor sports in India are a rarity. The game of Futsal is gaining in popularity across the globe, being of south American origin and being especially popular in Latin countries. There is even a FIFA Futsal World Cup and some countries have Pro-Futsal leagues, e.g Spain, Italy or even Russia, where Futsal is popular in the cold icy winters.
Total Sports Asia's India wing, Total Sports Entertainment India, and the Indian Football Association will be organising the first TVS Futsal Championships across Bengal from April 19 to May 28, 2005. This was announced at a press conference at the ITC Sonar Bangla in Calcutta today with Total Sports Entertainment India MD Navneet Sharma, IFA secretary Subrata Dutta and India captain Baichung Bhutia being present amongst others.
The tournament would be held across three legs. The first leg would be the district leg, where 16 teams from each of the 19 WB districts would play an inter-district tournament with the winner of each district playing in a zonal format to find the best overall district Futsal team. The second leg would be held in Calcutta and has been named Para football (Para=local area). Calcutta has been divided into three zones - north, south and central with 15 teams in each zone facing each other. The best three para teams would play out the Calcutta Para Futsal champions. The third and final leg would see the district and para champions play in the Futsal Super Division Championships along with the Super Six of the Calcutta Super Division 2004, which would include East Bengal, Mohun Bagan, EverReady SA, Tollygunge Agragami, Mohammedan Sporting and George Telegraph. This would mean that district and para footballers would have the chance to face the top stars of the Calcutta Maidan like India captain Baichung Bhutia in a Futsal tournament.
TVS is the title sponsor, while Khadims and Haywards 5000 are the co-sponsors of the event, which has a total prize money of Rs 300,000. The TV rights have been splitted between Tara Bangla and TEN Sports. While Tara Bangla is showing the district and para tournaments, and some matches from the finals; the semifinals and final would be shown on Ten Sports.
In future the organisers hope to broaden out the game into Goa, Mumbai and Kerala with the launched tournament becoming a yearly affair.

Note-2: The Pakistan Football Federation Secretary General Muhammad Arshad Khan Lodhi said in Lahore today, "The first ever Pakistan-India football series will be played as per PFF Calendar 2005." This comes from the PFF while there is still no confirmation from the AIFF on the tour supposed to be held between June 10 to 20 with three matches scheduled for June 12, 16 and 19. Also in future India and Pakistan could face each other on English soil as per PFF statements.

Note-3: At a press conference in Goa today Dempo SC secretary-cum-coach Armando Colaco said that the Federation Cup champions are fully prepared for their AFC Cup Group B match next wednesday against Jordanian club side Al-Hussein. The team would be strengthened by the return of keeper Abhijit Mondal, captain Stanley Colaco and winger Sameer Naik, who all had missed the away tie in Lebanon against Al-Ahed earlier this month.
"We want to beat the Jordanian club Al Hussein, which had defeated Al Ahed by 4-0. Though we lost to Al Ahed by one goal in the opening match but that did not change our prospects against Al Hussein. We are prepared to turn it around next week." "I am sure the home support will work wonders for us and Dempo will get the better of Al Hussein," he added.
For Dempo the match against Al-Hussein is crucial if they want to survive the group stage. Al-Hussein after their win against Al-Ahed are top of the group and with a win in Goa could strengthen their position to top the group and move into the quarterfinals.
Al-Hussein are set to arrive in Goa on Saturday, April 2, four days ahead of the match to get acclimatised to the hot weather in Goa, which could a major advantage to Dempo. Al-Hussein has three foreigners in their squad - two Egyptians and a Iraqi.
The match officials have also been appointed. The match commissioner would be Lt Col (retired) Kamarudin Sakhari (Malaysia). The match officials are from Kyrgyzstan - Emil Busurmankulov (referee), Yuri Eroshenko and Bahadyr Kochkorov (assistant referees), and Kadyrbek Chynybekov (fourth official).

29. March
9th National League - Calcutta: East Bengal Club 2-0 State Bank of Travancore - Goals: 1-0 Baichung Bhutia (20'), 2-0 Subhas Chakraborty (90+').
Champions East Bengal Club returned to winning ways with an easy 2-0 victory against bottom club State Bank of Travancore in a 9th National League match at the Saltlake Stadium, Calcutta. With today's win and Dempo's draw a couple of days ago at the same venue East Bengal moved back to the top of the league with now 30 points from 14 matches. Promoted SBT suffered their sixth defeat in a row, their seventh match without a win, and remain bottom of the league with only nine points from 14 matches.
The match didn't start well for SBT as they lost their dependable keeper Harshal Rehman just two minutes into the match, when the keeper hurt his ankle while he tried to snatch a long ball from an advancing Earnest Jeremiah. Young Jean Christian came on for his NFL debut. East Bengal made a slow start wanting to settle down after their defeat against Sporting Clube a few days ago and they gave SBT some space to put their passing game together. But SBT had only one good chance in the first ten minutes, a header from Mohammed Rafi which went wide. Thereafter the champions took control and went into the lead in the 20.minute. Striker Baichung Bhutia received a forward pass from the midfield, dodged his way past three SBT defenders and placed the ball to the left of Christian. The ninth goal of this NFL campaign for the inform India captain. SBT pulled more and more men back and started to defend bravely against the red.and-gold attack, where Baichung and Jemeriah got good balls from the midfield, but they didn't add any goals to the tally. SBT suffered their second setback just before the half hour mark when they captain Shabir Ali had to also go off injured and a more defensive orientated V Sivakumar came on. SBT could have scored the equaliser just before the breather, but an Anil Kumar attempt was cleared by Rajat Ghosh Dasdidar in the East Bengal goal.
East Bengal were in control but had only a slender lead, so after the breather the team upped their attempt to seal the three points. Coach Subhas Bhowmick did his bit by bringing on Malswam Tulunga inplace of Alvito D'Cunha which helped the wingplay and for the last quarter hour of the match Subhas Chakraborty made a comeback after a long injury layoff. The nearly forgotten Subhas wanted to prove a point that one will have to reckon with him, when he is fully matchfit. Subhas scored a brilliant left-footed side-volley in injury time off a pass from another substitute Gurpreet Singh to top his good performance.
EAST BENGAL: Rajat Ghosh Dastidar, Habibur Rahman Mondal, Selwyn Fernandes, Muttath Suresh (21' Gurpreet Singh), Syed Rahim Nabi, Climax Lawrence, Chandan Das (76' Subhas Chakraborty), Debjit Ghosh, Alvito D'Cunha (57' Shylo Malswam Tulunga), Earnest Jeremiah, Baichung Bhutia.
SBT: PV Harshal Rehman (2' PA Jean Christian), M Abdul Basheer, Paul Anthony, NP Pradeep, KS Joby, KM Abdul Naushad, AB Kabeer, T Shabir Ali, (28' V Sivakumar), TV Mohammed Harris, Anil Kumar (73' Asif Saheer), M Mohammed Rafi.
REFEREE: Manuel Pereira (Maharashtra).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Baichung Bhutia (East Bengal).

Note-1: The following story sadly seems to be typical when it comes to India and bureaucracy.
Talented 16-year-old goalkeeper Neelam Khalko from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand who has been picked to represent the India under-17 Girls' team in the first-ever AFC U17 Girls' Championship in South Korea from April 16 to 27. That is good news for Neelam, but now comes the problem - the passport. The U17 girls' camp was held in Bangalore, but Neelam had no passport before the camp, so she was asked to get a passport from her home state, in this case Jharkhand and she applied for a passport under the "Tatkal" scheme, which meant that Neelam had to pick-up her own passport from the state capital Ranchi. But Neelam is in Bangalore in the south of the country, while Ranchi is in the east, which means she can only reach there in two days by March 30 but she would have to submit her passport at the camp by March 30. Something which is impossible, as the Jharkhand FA cannot help her by paying an air ticket to and fro. So she might be obmitted from the team due to this.
In the interest of Neelam hopefully the officials from the AIFF and the JFA can sort it out for her. Otherwise a career in football might be over, before it has even started...

Note-2: At a press conference at the IFA offices in Calcutta, the IFA secretary Subrata Dutta announced that the "Anmol - Duckback Cup Bankim Inter-School Football Tournament 2005" would kickoff on Thursday, March 31 and finish with the finals on April 30. A total of 64 schools would be taking part in the tournament, which will see a total of 111 matches played in Calcutta, Howrah, Chinsurah, Barasat and Kalyani.
The winner would get a prize money of Rs 30,000, while the runners-up would get Rs. 20,000.

Note-3: The INDIA U13 will play in the Group D of the Central&South Asia Zone of the AFC U13 Football Festival to be held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from May 2 to 8, 2005. Our boys will face Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan B, Iran, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan in a really tough round robin league.

Note-4: The new Assam FA governing body under secretary Ankur Datta seems to be trying to promote football in the state. After steps for the state team, the AFA now wants to help tournament organisers to bring back lost glory. Be it the ATPA Shield, Independence Cup, Sohanlal Dugar Shield, Bordoloi Trophy and Captain NM Gupta Football Tournament, etc. Talks with the tournament organisers will be held in the coming weeks on how the AFA could help them.

28. March
The Westfalen Blatt newspaper in East Westphalia, here in Germany, started a series of articles earlier this month as build-up to the 2006 World Cup next summer. The series is following three different persons from now until the World Cup in 15 month's time on their personal build-up - a footballer, a journalist and a fan. The footballer is South African striker Delron Buckley who play his league football for DSC Arminia Bielefeld, the journalist is our own IndianFootball.Com Editor-in-Chief Chris P. Daniel and a football fan from the region.
Click here for >>the Westfalen Blatt article on Chris (German).

Note-1: The 2.Division National League was supposed to kickoff in early March, but until today it hasn't with dates and schedules not released so far. But slowly infos are coming out on what is to expect this season from India's Division 2, though not all infos can be confirmed so far.
The league is set to be played in a three stage format in April and May. The eight seeded clubs NFL relegated Indian Bank, Mohammedan Sporting Club along with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Air-India, Border Security Force, Punjab Police, Hindustan Club and Tata Football Academy would be joined by four clubs, who come through the preliminary round qualifiers. From the 12 teams at the second stage, divided into two groups of six teams each, the top two clubs would move into the final round of four teams with two of the four making it into the National League's Premier Division.
One of the second stage groups is set to be held at the JRD Tata Complex football stadium in Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, giving home advantage to the Tata Football Academy.

Note-2: The governing body of the Assam FA met yesterday at the AFA office premises and decisions for long-term development of football in the state were taken.
The selection camps for the Assam state team for the 33rd National Games have started. The first round with coaching camps at three centres across the state in Jorhat, Nagaon and Kokrajhar from March 14 to 25 have been held. 47 players have been selected and they would be joined by state-level players for the second stage camp from April 25. 30 players would then be selected for a tour of Manipur or Sikkim from May 18 to 26. These 30 players would then train in Calcutta from June 15, while 25 players would be selected to tour either Goa, Punjab or Delhi thereafter. This tour would be from July 8 to 18. A chief coach would have to be appointed for the upcoming asignments.
The AFA is soon set to launch a new scheme called Vision 2008 to scout for talent across the 41 districts of the state/AFA affiliated units to strenghten the state teams senior and juniors in the coming years. The key age group would be under-14 with "to catch them young" is the keyword. The programme would start soon with a 21-day camp for 40 players in each of the district/AFA units. Then five players from each camp would come together at central camps.
The calendar for the 2005/06 season has also been cleared. The season would kickoff with the Sub-Junior Inter-District Tournament in Dhemaji from June 12. The 10th Assam Club Championships would be held in Hailakandi from November 5.

27. March
9th National League - Goa: Salgaocar SC 2-2 Mahindra United - Goals: 1-0 Bernard Pires (42'), 1-1,2-2 Flavio de Oliveira Rodrigues (64',90+'), 2-1 Bello Rasaq (82').
Former champions Salgaocar SC were denied victory by a late penalty for ten-men Mahindra United in a 9th National League match at the Nehru Stadium, Margao which ended in a two-all draw. Relegation-threathened Salgaocar now have 16 points from 14 matches and stay in seventh place, while Mahindra with their eighth draw in this NFL now have 20 points from the same number of matches to stay fifth.
Salgaocar were the better of the two sides in the first half but chances for Remus Gomes, Felix Ibrebru and Bello Rasaq were wasted. Mahindra had to make an early goalkeeper substitution in the 19.minute when Naseem Akhtar came on for an injured Sunder Raj Rajan. Lucky Mahindra that this injury didn't come last match as they then hadn't had a keeper on the bench. Akhtar was beaten three minutes from the breather by a Bernard Pires grounder over 20 metre's out.
After the breather the match became more even as Mahindra wanted to get the equaliser. Mahindra were awarded a penalty in the 64.minute when their Brazilian striker Flavio Rodrigues was fouled by defender Bento Vaz. Flavio himself took the spotkick to equalise. The match was now open with both teams having chances to go ahead. It was Salgaocar who took the lead of another penalty in the 82.minute. Mahindra defender Covan Lawrence brought down Jerose Oliveira, a costly foul for Covan as he got his second yellow card of the match and was expelled. Salgaocar defender Bello Rasaq made no mistake to place the ball in the net. It looked as if Salgaocar would keep all three points in Goa, but that was not to be. In injury time the referee S Suresh gave his third penalty of the day, this one a more controversial one, as Rocus Lamare was pulled-up for bringing down Flavio, though it was questioned if Rocus had any contact with Flavio. Flavio took his second penalty of the day and scored again to level the score at two-all. Another day for Mahindra United, this time though they will be happy to take a point home.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Bello Rasaq (Salgaocar).

9th National League - Calcutta: Mohun Bagan AC 0-0 Dempo SC - Goals: none.
Former champions Mohun Bagan AC and Federation Cup winners Dempo SC played out a goalless draw in the 9th National League under humid conditions at the Saltlake Stadium, Calcutta. After 14 matches Dempo moved, at least temporarily, to the top of the standings with now 28 points; while Mohun Bagan stay out of the relegation spots with 16 points.
Seasoned coach Amal Datta made a return to the Bagan bench after he was appointed last weekend and made a few tactical changes and brought on some new players to the playing eleven, who took a defensive approach and the main aim was not to conceed a goal. It worked as the team played with a new found fighting spirit to avoid a defeat at the hands of fancied Dempo.
But the incidence of the day was, whatever the final outcome of the match would be, the seconds that Dempo striker Ranty Martins Soleye lay unconcious on the ground in the 37.minute. For the Dempo players, officials and fans at the ground it was a terrible déjà vu. A reminder of December 5, 2004 when their Brazilian striker Cristiano Junior died in the final of the Federation Cup against the same opponent in Bangalore. This time Ranty and his Nigerian compatriot Ajibade Babalade collided in an aerial tussle, but Ranty after a few minutes of treatment on the sidelines came back onto the ground and finished the match.
Both teams had their chances with Dempo having the better ones. While Roberto Mendes Silva could have scored on a number of occasions for Bagan with Dempo keeper Satish Kumar always in the way, for Dempo Ranty and RC Prakash weren't on target today.
MOHUN BAGAN: Subrata Pal, Dulal Biwas, Eduardo Chacon Coelho Lacerda, Ajibade Babalade, Manas Das, Mehtab Hussein, Jo Paul Ancheri, Basudeb Mondal (75' Jerry Zirsanga), Dharamjit Singh, Tomba Singh, Roberto Mendes Silva.
DEMPO: VP Satish Kumar, Valeriano Rebello, Stanley Colaco (24' Dominic Noronha), Majekodumni Bolaji, Raju Singh, Clifford Miranda, Nacimento Silveira (81' Mario Soares), Riston Rodrigues, Johnny D'Cruz, RC Prakash, Ranty Martins Soleye.
REFEREE: Rizwan ul-Haq (Delhi).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Roberto Mendes Silva (Mohun Bagan).

Note-1: INDIA is one of six countries who have shown huge interest to host the next AFC Youth Championships 2006. Besides INDIA, others who have shown interest to host the under-20 championships are Iran, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Tajikistan. The 2006 edition would be held in the Central/South Asia zone under the rotational policy of the AFC. The final decision on the host would be taken after an inspection is held in the six interested countries.
The top-four finishers of AFC Youth Championship 2006 will advance to the 16th FIFA World Youth Championship 2007 in Canada.
In the qualification stage India have been drawn in Group G along with Sri Lanka and Turkmenistan and we would have to play the qualifiers even if we host the championships, as the second best team would then qualify.

Note-2: Raju Gusain of HT - Dehra Dun has been trying to find an answer if Bhupender Rawat, former with Gorkha Brigade was the joint highest scorer of the Durand Cup, the third oldest tournament in the world, along with Mohammed Habib, then with East Bengal. And he has found an answer:
Bhupender Rawat turned 66 this month. And it was an emotional moment for him. Rawat visited the state capital to celebrate his birthday among his old friends. He considers his visit to Dehradun a pilgrimage as he started to play football here.
Footballer Bhupender Rawat holds the unique distinction of scoring the highest goals in one Durand Cup. He scored 12 goals in six matches in the 1966 Durand to become the highest scorer in the oldest football tournament of the country. Mohammed Habib of East Bengal equalled Rawat's record in 1972. But Rawat's achievement is yet to find mention in the football records book of the country. This is because in the Limca Book of Records, the record for highest goals in one Durand Cup stands in the name of Mohammed Habib of East Bengal Club.
Mohammed Habib scored 12 goals in seven matches in the 1972 Durand Cup. Limca Book authorities have admitted the mistake and will include Bhupender Rawat's name in the new edition. The 1966 Durand Cup belonged to local Bhupender Rawat of the Gorkha Brigade, posted here at that time. He played a key role in the title victory of the Gorkha Brigade. Rawat scored 12 goals in six matches of the Durand Cup 1966. He scored two goals each against the Sikh Regiment, Mohammedan Sporting and Leaders Club. Four against RAC, Bikaner. One, each, against Mohun Bagan and New Delhi Heroes. Making it 12 goals in six matches of the Durand Cup 1966.
Commenting on Bhupender's class, famous sports writer Novy Kapadia says, "Bhupender Rawat was known as 'scooter', as he was small but very fast and elusive. He was a good goal-poacher and scored many goals through quick placements and tap-ins by darting into the box to meet low crosses. Speed was his forte." Nova witnessed the 1966 Durand Cup. 'The Times of India' (January 11, 1966) declared Bhupender Rawat the most popular player of Durand 1966. Sports journalists ran out of adjectives to narrate the impressive form of Bhupender.
Reporting about the 1966 Durand Cup, the Statesman (January 17, 1966) writes, "This time, Rawat was undoubtedly the brightest, a touch player raking up odd memories of the famous Neville D'Souza. His feet are presumably endowed with brains." "Rawat ended with a bag of 12 goals, including the two beauties of the final, " the Statesman concludes. Lauding Rawat's skills Deccan Herald writes, "Forget this match (final between Gorkha Brigade and Sikh Regiment). Think of the future of the Indian football! You have in Rawat a bubbling center-forward who can take us places in world football."
The Durand 1966 is still fresh in the memory of Bhupender Rawat. Recalling it, he says, "My best goal was a full-stretch diving header against Mohun Bagan in the semi final. I was able to score twelve goals in that tourney because of teammates like Amar Bahadur, Tika Ram and Ranjit Thapa, who used to feed me the perfect passes." Bhupender Rawat is presently working as a coach in the Mohun Bagan SAIL Football Academy (Durgapur, WB).

26. March
9th National League - Calicut: State Bank of Travancore 1-2 JCT Mills - Goals: 1-0 NP Pradeep (18'), 1-1 Alexander Jebba (42'), 1-2 Harvinder Singh (61').
Promoted State Bank of Travancore suffered a 1-2 defeat at the hands of former champions JCT Mills in a 9th National League match at the Municipal Corporation Stadium, Calicut. State Bank of Travancore remain bottom of the league with only nine points from 13 matches, while JCT move a bit away from the relegation spots with 18 points from the same number of matches.
SBT took the lead in the 18.minute when KS Joby crossed the ball from the left to the other flank to India junior international NP Pradeep who ran down the right flank before firing a shot at goal, which went in past JCT keeper Mansuru Mohammed. SBT relaxed after taking the lead with the JCT defence being a difficult wall to crack for the speedy SBT strikers. Meanwhile on the other side JCT got the equaliser a minute from the breather as Nigerian striker Alexander Jebba scored his first goal for the Phagwara Millmen off a freekick from Ram Pal. Substitute Harvinder Singh gave JCT the lead of a penalty in the 61.minute, after SBT defender V Sivakumar had handled the ball in the area to stop an attacking Harvinder. JCT could have further enhanced the lead but hardworking midfielder Baldeep Singh missed a good chance.
SBT: PV Harshal Rehman, M Abdul Basheer, V Sivakumar, NP Pradeep, KS Joby, T Shabir Ali, AB Kabeer, KM Abdul Naushad, MA Abdul Hakkim, AG Mohammed Aslam, T Asif Saheer.
JCT: Mansuru Mohammed, Daljit Singh, Julius Irabor Akpele, KV Dhanesh, Taranjit Singh, Baldeep Singh, Sukhjinder Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Ram Pal, Manjit Singh (Jaswinder Singh), Alexander Jebba (Harvinder Singh).
REFEREE: P Bhaskar (Tamil Nadu).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Julius Irabor Akpele (JCT).

9th National League - Calcutta: East Bengal Club 2-3 Sporting Clube de Goa - Goals: 0-1 MacPherlin Dudu Oamgbemi (34'), 0-2 Adebayo Adewusi (44'), 1-2 Syed Rahim Nabi (52'), 1-3 Chidi Edeh (56'), 2-3 Baichung Bhutia (90+1').
Champions East Bengal Club suffered a shock 2-3 defeat at the hands of Sporting Clube de Goa in the 9th National League at the Saltlake Stadium, Calcutta. East Bengal suffered their first home defeat of this NFL campaign, while for Sporting Clube it was an important win away in Calcutta made possible through their Nigerian trio all scoring. After Round 13 East Bengal are now joint leaders with Dempo SC on 27 points, only that East Bengal are ahead on goal difference. Sporting Clube are third again with now 23 points and now have to be taken seriously as a potential title contender.
The match started as one would have expected with East Bengal firing from all cylinders for the first 20 to 25 minutes with Climax Lawrence, Alvito D'Cunha and Earnest Jeremiah working in tandem while Baichung Bhutia was heavily marked, but thereafter Sporting Clube slowly took control of the match. Disaster struck for the first time for the champions as Muttath Suresh brought down striker Chidi Edeh in the area. Sporting Clube captain MacPherlin Dudu Omagbemi gave his team the lead of the resultant penalty in the 34.minute. Sporting Clube doubled their lead in the 44.minute when midfielder Adebayo Adewusi took a stunning left-footer which went into the goal.
After the break a goal in the 51.minute brought back hope to East Bengal when Syed Rahim Nabi scored of a rebound, after Jeremiah's shot had hit the crossbar. But the hope was shortlived as only five minutes later Sporting Clube's Chidi Edeh increased the lead again. East Bengal was only able to reduce the deficit in injury time through Baichung Bhutia.
To the East Bengal supporters, officials and the general football fan in Calcutta today's defeat to Sporting Clube will have come as a major surprise, but East Bengal coach Subhas Bhowmick had warned of the danger posed by Sporting Clube's attack, which he had called as the best in the country ahead of the match. What one should question is that why a striker with the quality of Chidi Edeh plays local league football in Calcutta in the first division group A and not for a Calcutta NFL side.
EAST BENGAL: Sangram Mukherjee, Syed Rahim Nabi, Muttath Suresh, Selwyn Fernandes (46' Habibur Rehman Mondal), Madhab Das, Shylo Malsawm Tulunga (52' Dipankar Roy), Climax Lawrence, Chandan Das (63' Bijen Singh), Alvito D'Cunha, Earnest Jeremiah, Baichung Bhutia.
SPORTING CLUBE: Felix D'Souza, Vincent Pires, CK Jiteesh, Philip Gomes, N Rajesh Meetei, Wilton Gomes (71' Nicholas L Rodrigues), Adebayo Adewusi, Bibiano Fernandes, Joseph Pereira (84' Anthony Levino Pereira), Chidi Edeh, MacPherlin Dudu Oamgbemi.
REFEREE: T Pradip Kumar (Tamil Nadu).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Chidi Edeh (Sporting Clube).

9th National League - Goa: Fransa FC 0-0 Tollygunge Agragami - Goals: none.
Debutants Fransa FC were held to a goalless draw by Tollygunge Agragami in the 9th National League at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. After now having both played 14 matches, Fransa are now fourth with 22 points, while Tollygunge have 15 points and are in ninth position, a relegation spot, but they have the same number of points as the teams infront of them.
It was a match were the Fransa attack tried to score but where not capable on the day or Tollygunge keeper Arindam Ghosh was in the way, while Tollygunge got a point which they wanted to take home to Calcutta.
In the first half Fransa had the edge with both teams having chances to go ahead. Tollygunge had the first good chance of the match in the 7.minute as a Isiaka Awoyemi cross was well-taken by striker Tarif Ahmed, but his shot was blocked by Fransa keeper Rajat Guha. Fransa had a double chance in the 17.minute, when a shot from midfielder Santa Saikhom Singh was not properly cleared by defender Debkumar Sashmal, but the shot from Sebastiao Endro went wide. Then Fransa striker Joseph Ogor's shot went over the bar, before Tarif Ahmed had another chance for Tollygunge which was cleared by Fransa defender Louis Aniweta.
The second half was a calm and quiet affair with little to no goalmouth action. The best chances came Fransa's way with Ogor on both occasions being the culprit as Ghosh blocked his shots.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Arindam Ghosh (Tollygunge).

25. March

24. March
IndianFootball.Com Mumbai correspondent Sujay Sharma was at the "Soccer Twist" event last Saturday in Mumbai to report for us. An interesting and successful event, which you can read about in our IndianFootball.Com LIVE section.
For the complete "Soccer Twist" report to go >>IndianFootball.Com LIVE.

Note-1: The 6th edition of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship will be held in December 2005 at the Karachi's Peoples Sports Complex in Pakistan. This was decided amongst the seven SAFF members at the AFC headquarters over the last couple of days. Participating would be record champions INDIA, defending champions Bangladesh, host Pakistans, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan. To complete the eight team event, an invitation will also be forwarded to Afghanistan, who had returned to international football in the 2003 edition of the biannual event.
It had been expected that the four central Asian countries would join in the next edition of the SAFF Cup, as the AFC has divided Asia into four regions with Central and South Asia being one, but these countries aren't taking part.

Note-2: The INDIA U13 coaching camp will kickoff on April 1 with 40 probables from across India in Goa. The best would be chosen at the camp by the appointed coaches Chinmoy Chatterjee, Satheevan Balan and Mariano Dias for the AFC U13 Football Festival to be held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from May 2 to 8, 2005.
U13 Probables: Tirtankar Sarkar, Ganesh Dey, Mantu Mandal, Mujafar Ali, Avsekh Das, Sudipta Banerjee (all West Bengal), Amritpal Singh, Sajandeep Singh, Balginder Singh, Sennaj Singh, Bikramjit Singh, Manpreet Singh (all Punjab), Henry Marboh, Samuel Shadap, Kyrpang S Diengdoh, Banraplhang Marboh, Dhawansann K (all Meghalaya), Raymons Rodrigues, Shallun Pires, Marshall Fernandes (all Goa), Abhil R, Jatin Raj K, Shanvas P (all Kerala), PC Lacremsiama, Laldin Puia, PC Lalruatfeela (all Mizoram), Aditya Awasthi, Ashish Bhalla, Sumit Rawat (all Delhi), K Arvind, Ishaan Achanta, Charles Selvamani (all Tamil Nadu), Avik Chatterjee, Allwyn George (both Maharashtra), Arashpret Singh, Simranjeet Singh (both Chandigarh), Vikas Kumar, Vivek Kumar (both Haryana), Subash Pal (Uttar Pradesh), Johnny Sharma (Jammu&Kashmir).

23. March
The latest FIFA world rankings where released today and INDIA have lost a place and are now 134th in the 205 nation rankings. INDIA now have 361 points, three less then a month ago. In Asia INDIA also lost a place as they are now 26th.

9th National League - Goa: Vasco SC 5-0 Tollygunge Agragami - Goals: 1-0,4-0 Sidney Santana Rodrigues (15',36'), 2-0 K Aseem (28'), 3-0 Samson Fernandes (31'), 5-0 K Anees (56').
In a clash between two relegation-threatened clubs Vasco SC trashed Tollygunge Agragami 5-0 in a 9th National League match at the Nehru Stadium, Margao.After having now both played 13 matches, Tollygunge remain in ninth spot with 14 points, while Vasco leave the bottom place of the league to become 11th with now 12 points. This means both teams stay in the relegation zone, but they aren't too far away from the non-relegation spots.
It was the third time in 13 matches in this NFL that Tollygunge let in five goals, with their goal difference now being the worst of the whole league, something which might go against them in the final calculations. For Vasco meanwhile it was the first home win in this NFL after six losses and only a draw.
The match didn't start off as one-sided as it became later on as both sides had their chances. Tollygunge'a best chances were missed by Nigerian striker Akeem Abul Alem and Ghanian midfielder Suley Musah, both set-up by Gouranga Datta. Vasco went ahead in the 15.minute through a goal from their Brazilian midfielder Sidney Santana Rodrigues and added three more goals in the next 21 minutes. First striker K Aseem scored in the 28.minute and only three minutes later young defender Samson Fernandes scored their first goals of the season. In the 36.minute Sidney scored his teams fourth and his second to complete a disastrous first half for Tollygunge. Midfielder K Anees, who later got the "Man of the Match" award, ended the goalscoring spree in the 56.minute. Vasco could have added to the tally, while Tollygunge could have scored a consolation goal.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: K Anees (Vasco).

2nd Tiddim Trophy, Imphal - Semifinal: TRAU 1-1,2-4 Southern Sporting Union, Singjamei [penalties] - Goals: 1-0 R Vashum (37'), 1-1 Banny Chiru (71').

Note-1: The IFA secretary Subrata Dutta informed the media yesterday that the AIFF would conduct random dope tests during the Mohun Bagan-Dempo (Sunday) and East Bengal-State Bank of Travancore (Tuesday) matches in Calcutta of the 9th National League.

Note-2: The camp for the Indian women's national team for the Women's Asia Cup would start-off on April 15 at the SAI Eastern Centre in Calcutta.
Meanwhile former Indian women's international Kuntala Ghosh Dasdidar has been appointed coach of the Indian U17 girls team for the first-ever AFC U17 Girls' Championships to be held in South Korea from April 16 to 27. India have been drawn in a touch Group A along with hosts South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand.

22. March
9th National League - Ludhiana: JCT Mills 0-1 East Bengal Club - Goal: 0-1 Earnest Jemeriah (43').
Champions East Bengal Club earned a hard-fought 1-0 away victory against former champions JCT Mills in the 9th National League at the Guru Nanak Stadium, Ludhiana. East Bengal kept their quest for a hattrick of NFL titles intact and now have 27 points from 12 matches to remain top of the league, while JCT remained on 15 points from the same number of matches, but dropped a place to seventh in the league with the relegation zone now just a point away.
East Bengal missed the services of star striker Baichung Bhutia due to a yellow card suspension and it was left to on loan Nigerian striker Earnest Jemeriah to score the winner for the Calcutta Maidan giants. The winner came two minutes from the breather when Climax Lawrence send Malswam Tulunga free on the right wing, he dibbled his way past defender KV Dhanesh, centred the ball for Jemeriah to shot home.
It was JCT who made a strong start with their typical agressive, running game; while East Bengal played disciplined and controlled game. The young Turks from Phagwara tried to open up the East Bengal defence, but didn't really get through still if they did Sangram Mukherjee was there in goal to avert danger. In midfield seasoned Ram Pal and youngster Sukhjinder Singh worked in tandem, but the JCT attack just wasn't as sharp as they would need to be against India's best club side. For East Bengal Alvito D'Cunha had an outstanding match as he worked hard in midfield and upfront and set-up a number of his teams chances. For his performance Alvito after the match received the "Man of the Match" award.
In the second half JCT brought in Jaswinder Singh to strengthen their wingplay and it worked as he worked tirelessly on the wings to set-up chances for striker Harvinder Singh and Alexander Jebba. But Jaswinder himself could have scored on two occasions but missed the goal. Even two corners at the very end of the match for JCT didn't bring any real chance for the Millmen.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Alvito D'Cunha (East Bengal).

9th National League - Goa: Churchill Brothers SC 1-2 Dempo SC - Goals: 0-1 RC Prakash (57'), 1-1 Marcos Pereira (85'), 1-2 Osumanu Husseini (90' - own Goal).
Federation Cup champions Dempo SC remain closest challenger of defending champions East Bengal with a 2-1 victory away to Goan rivals Churchill Brothers SC in the 9th National League at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. An own goal just before the final hooter gave Dempo the needed win for them to move to 27 points from 13 matches, while relegation-threathened Churchill Brothers remained on 13 points from as many matches.
In an interesting and open match both sides had their chances. Churchill Brothers had the better ones in the first half, where they could have scored on a number of different occasions with Sujay Dutta hitting the woodwork twice, while the other chances were wasted by Yakubu Yusif and Marcos Pereira. Dempo meanwhile missed the services of their top striker Ranty Martins Soleye due to a yellow card suspension and their attack today was the pair of RC Prakash and Ishfaq Ahmed. It was Prakash who gave Dempo the lead in the 57.minute of a cross from Valeriano Rebello. After going ahead Dempo wanted to seal the match with a second goal and the team had their chances, but it was Churchill who came back into the match in the 85.minute when Brazilian Marcos Pereira equalised of a Yakubu cross. But the joy was shortlived as Dempo regained the lead in the 90.minute when a Johnny D'Cruz cross went into the Churchill goal of a mishit by dependable Ghanian defender Osumanu Husseini past keeper Mark Mascarenhas.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Stanley Colaco (Dempo).

Note-1: The Indian Sports Minister Sunil Dutt has been asked by the All India Women's Football Federation president Kirti Azad, who happens to be a former Cricket, to resolve the disput between the AIWFF and the AIFF. The dispute centres around the authority regarding women's football in India.
"Dasmunshi has created this dispute. He is not capable of managing his home and wants to manage others'. This issue was tried to be resolved. Former Sports Minister Uma Bharti had called both the Federation members, who decided to end the matter then and their. But Dasmunshi later got a memorandum of understanding signed in his favour and again began to claim his authority on AIWFF, which has been refused by its office-bearers," Azad alleged.
If the sports minister would solve the issue or if there was any issue at all is not properly known at the moment.

Note-2: The tour of Indian captain Baichung Bhutia across the Northeast for one of his sponsors continued today with the Mizoram capital Aizawl being the next destination after Guwahati and Shillong.
Talking to the press, Baichung committed his immediate future to his current club East Bengal with whom he has had considerable success over the years and also it was the first professional club he signed for. He special bond has been created over the years. But Europe was still in his mind for another try, if he got the chance to go for trials.
Baichung also appealed to the youth looking to take up football as a career to enjoy the game and play for themselves and not try to copy football stars.

Note-3: The Bangladesh U17 girls national team would be coming to West Bengal on March 29 for a three match preparatory tour against of the AFC U17 Girls' Championships to be held in South Korea.
The Bangladeshi side would take on the Bengal U17 girls team at Haldia, Durgapur and Calcutta.

21. March
The 9th National League match between JCT Mills - East Bengal Club which was supposed to be played today at the Guru Nanak Stadium, Ludhiana will be played tomorrow. From what we at IndianFootball.COm know there has been no official change of schedule, but as per infos from Ludhiana the match will only be held tomorrow and not today.

9th National League - Mumbai: Mahindra United 0-1 Fransa FC - Goal: 0-1 Jules Alberto Dias (25').
Mahindra United did manage to break their succession of draws, though not quite with the result they wanted. For, they lost by a solitary goal to Fransa FC of Goa, despite having dominated the possession and the half-chances over the whole match. United are now beginning to slip in the standings in the National Football League, and will probably find it quite difficult to make the final for the ONGC Super Cup.
United started the game with their standard 5-3-2 formation. Sunder Rajan got a start in goal, for the indisposed Sandip Nandy, and precariously, United didn't have a goalkeeper on the bench. Khalid Jamil was deployed as the holding midfielder. Fransa opted for a five-man midfield consisting of Peter Rogrigues, Benjamin Owusu Ansah, Hardip Singh Saini, Jules Alberto Dias, and Biju Kumar, with only Joseph Ogor upfront on his own. Syed Hussain, Ambalath Suliman Firoze, Cresson Antao, and Sanjeev Kumar Maria were the flat back four. Thus it was quite visible, that like most teams visiting Mumbai, Fransa too setout so as not to lose.
United had probably decided that they definitely did not want to concede the first goal, and play catch-up, like they had done in most of their matches here. Hence, their positive start as they played a pressing game against Fransa right form the start, whenever not in possession, so as to not let Fransa settle on the ball or create anything that might lead to a goal. Resultantly, Fransa rarely strung a few passes together. From a corner for United the 1st minute, their attacking and positive intent was highlighted as they left only two players up field. In this eventful match, the action came thick and fast. 7 minutes on, Flavio Rodrigues dribbled past two Fransa players, as he didn't have other options, and conjured up a shot on target when inside the box, albeit ineffective. Flavio, on 18 minutes, created another promising move, when he did well to find space and lay it on for the overlapping Debabrata Roy. The other United wingback, Surkumar Singh, too was full of energy down the right, showing tremendous work-rate, and doing well to obtain a corner out of nothing in the 12th minute. 19 minutes on, Shanmugam Venkatesh made room, and fed Flavio, who managed to side-step Fransa defender, but unfortunately for him the ball got a bit too far before he pulled the trigger. Flavio was looking active and involved. His countryman, Rodrigo de Almeida, though, sometimes took too long on the ball till then. But, on 21 minutes, Rodrigo did give a delightful overhead return ball to put Flavio through on goal, but Flavio wasted the opportunity by shooting straight at goalkeeper Kalyan Chaubey. Then, a minute later, another golden chance for United went a begging, after a well-taken quick throw-in followed by an early cross from the left was not met in time to be side-footed into the goal for the opener, by that man again - Flavio. By this time, United's confidence was growing, and Fransa were looking rattled by this quick and aggressive United onslaught right from the start.
Fransa finally threatened on 24 minutes, after being awarded a freekick, around 30 yards from goal, directly in front of it. Benjamin Ansah shot on goal after a well-worked routine, and the ball deflected off a United defender for a corner, else it would have gone in. Then, from that resulting corner, and very much against the run of play, Jules Alberto scored for Fransa. The corner kick was curled in well to the far-post, and the United defenders didn't get their heads to it. Ansah's did, and his header back across goal, was put in by Jules who was waiting well in the right place. The United defence should have dealt better with the routine, and probably was culpable. Maybe the goalkeeper too could have come to deal with the cross. Now the question was, how would United respond to this devastating blow, although they themselves were a bit at fault.
However, United seemed to have responded well. They were still playing well in the minutes after the goal. After conceding, United changed formation. Mahesh Gawli moved into midfield from defence, operating as the holding man. Khalid Jamil was made to play further up-field, while Jatin Singh Bisht dropped a bit deeper, to initiate better plays. Obviously, this made sense, as Fransa were playing only one striker. 30 minutes on, Rodrigo almost created one chance but shot wide from just outside the box, after build-up play with Flavio. Two minutes later, Jatin and Venkatesh worked up another promising chance, but like always thus far, that final killer pass necessary was missing. Among all this United domination, however, Fransa did look capable of launching a dangerous counter-attack. Again, after 33 minutes, it was only "almost", as Rodrigo let Flavio through. United definitely needed to get more clinical in their passing. A minute later, Chaubey and a Fransa defender needed a combined effort to dispossess Venkatesh off the ball in the box in a dangerous situation, after Jatin found him with a beautiful pass. Another minute later, and again Fransa had to clear the ball out of their box. Fransa really were living dangerously.
That deadly counter-attack Fransa always threatened, almost occurred in the 35th minute. A defender's straight ball reached Ansah, whose powerful and accurate long-range effort was saved well by the diving Rajan. This was frantic stuff, with some good football on show. Although United were clearly dominating and playing well, they were doing so only up to Fransa's final third, and disappointingly not in it. On the other hand, Fransa, despite not creating much, were ensuring all their half-chances at least made the goalkeeper work. Unsurprisingly, the Fransa fullbacks hardly ventured forward at all, with Fransa content to hold on to their goal-advantage. Again United came close to equalizing, when just a minute before the interval, the angle got just a bit too narrow for Venkatesh to shoot well from a ball laid on for him delicately with a chip by Flavio. Finally, in 1st half injury time, Jatin, who was pulling the strings, found Flavio with another good ball. Flavio, once again, shot straight at Chaubey, after playing a return pass with onrushing Debabrata.
The ever-present aerial threat Abhishek Yadav came on for the relatively ineffective Khalid Jamil, at the start of the 2nd half. United carried on in the 2nd half where they left off in the 1st. They dominated possession, and pressed well in midfield, and were getting near Fransa's box right from the re-start. However, Fransa had the first threat of the half, when on 51 minutes on a counter-attack. Jules put the ball in behind the United centre-backs, and Peter was clean through, but Debabrata managed to backtrack just in time. To their credit, the United fullbacks were really pushing up well, and that was stopping the Fransa wide players from being much of an attacking threat as they were having to concentrate more on defence. United, on 56 minutes, had a good chance, when Abhishek held the ball up well with back to goal, gave it wide to Venkatesh on the right, who put in a lovely ball into the far-post, a dipping cross in behind the Fransa defence. Rodrigo dived in vain, as he just couldn't get his leg to the ball, for what would surely have been an equalizer. 66 minutes on, Abhishek wasted another guilt-edged chance. A miss-hit goal kick by Chaubey, was pounced upon by the alert Debabrata, whose nice early cross in was met by Abhishek's powerful header, which was too far back across goal, and off-target. What a let-off for the Fransa goalie that was. Flavio, by this time, was often drifting to the left, with Abhishek the target-man. With around 20 minutes left, and United were now desperately trying to create a goal, by getting the ball forward quickly. In the 76th minute, Jatin brushed off a Fransa defender, as he sent in a threatening cross, whose flight was misjudged by the Fransa back-line. But, again, nothing came of it, as the ball came at an awkward height for Debabrata at the back-post. On 81 minutes, Rajan made two spectacular reflex saves from point-blank range off a free kick from Saikhom Singh from just outside the box, to keep United in the game. Immediately at the other end, Flavio probably missed the chance of the match, as Chaubey flapped at a Jatin free kick from outside the box. The ball came to Flavio, who, unmarked, and with an open goal, conspired to head wide. Then, Jules headed inches wide from a cross from the left on a fast Fransa counter-attack in the 85th minute. Thus the game ended, with some breath-taking and frantic end-to-end stuff.
United couldn't equalize this time round, and would rue to no end the amount of opportunities they squandered. The title seems extremely distant now.
MAHINDRA: Sunder Raj Rajan, Surkumar Singh (70' Steven Dias), Covan Lawrence, Peter Siddique, Mahesh Gawli (78' Kalia Koluthungan), Debabrata Roy, Jatin Singh Bisht, Shanmugam Venkatesh, Khalid Jamil, Flavio de Oliveira Rodrigues, Rodrigo Calisto de Almeida.
FRANSA: Kalyan Chaubey, Anbalath Suliman Firoze, Sanjeev Kumar Maria, Syed Hussein, Cresson Antao, Peter Rodrigues (90' Sebastiao Endro), Jules Alberto Dias, Hardip Singh Saini, TV Biju Kumar (68' Santa Saikhom Singh), Benjamin Owusu Ansah, Joseph Toochukwu Ogor (90+3' Marlanki Suting).
REFEREE: S Bharat Mani (Karnataka).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Sanjeev Kumar Maria (Fransa).

Note-1: A PTI report: Asking everyone from the federation to the government to take the blame for Indian football's low world ranking, star striker Baichung Bhutia has said that the country needed foreign coaches to harness talent at the junior level. "I don't see anybody working. That's why (Indian) football is lagging. Not only the players but each and everyone, that includes the government and federation, should take the blame (for the poor show)," Bhutia told reporters.
The best known face in Indian football also cited the lack of funds as a stumbling block for the development of the world's most popular sport.
Admitting that Indian football had its golden era in the 1960s when countries like UAE or Bahrain were not even playing the sport. "Since then these small nations were investing nearly $60 million for taking their teams to the World Cup final while our spending was not even one per cent of it," he said.
The nimble-footed 'Sikkim Sniper', who was in Shillong to endorse a brand, also stressed the role played by corporate houses in providing the basic infrastructure and arousing interest among the masses. "Today eveyone wants to become another Sachin Tendulkar because every TV channel is showing him endorsing some product or the other. That in a way kindles the interest about the game of cricket in the young generation," Bhutia said.
But Bhutia did not want to blame cricket for all the bad times of Indian football. "No it is not because of cricket that football is losing its interest. Those who have interest for a game, will watch that only," he opined.
Baichung, the only Indian to play for an English club when he turned out for Bury FC a few years back, also said the need of foreign coaches was at the grassroot level. "I think foreign coaches are needed at the under-13 or under-16 level which different academies can afford," he said.
Asked to rate footballers from the North-East, the Sikkimese said they were very talented but a little impatient. Elaborating, he said Kolkata clubs generally signed a player and expected them to produce instant results without giving them time to settle down after shifting from small towns like Gangtok or Shillong.
"But the players from the North-East should learn to hang on for sometime and wait for their turn even while sitting on the bench. They should get to acquaint with the club culture (in Kolkata) and also the environment," Bhutia said citing his own case.
Queried on his plans to sign for a foreign club in the near future, Bhutia said he had to forego an offer from a Malaysian outfit in January as he was contracted with national champions East Bengal.

Note-2: The Mumbai District FA will be organising coaching camps for children under-16 years in the holiday period across four centres in Mumbai. The four centres are the Cooperage ground; St. Xavier's ground, Parel; RCF ground, Chembur; and Borivali. The initiave to hold such a camp has been undertaken by the MDFA to teach interested children in the skills of the game and for them to go on and be able to represent their school, college, club, etc.
Children interested to join one of the camps are advised to submit their names alongwith their certificate of age proof to the following between 5 to 7 p.m. everyday from March 28 to April 14, 2005.
- Cooperage ground - Mr. David - Tel. 2204 4892
- St. Xavier's ground, Parel - Anthony Rodrigues - Tel. 2412 4900
- RCF ground, Chembur - CK Shetty - Tel. 2528 5401 // 2553 3684
- Borivali - Xavier Faria - Tel. 98219 81566 // 562503149
A good initiative by the MDFA and we at IndianFootball.Com hope that many kids interested to play football take and utilise this opportunity.

20. March
2nd Tiddim Trophy, Imphal - Semifinal: NEROCA 0-0,1-0 YWC, Thambalkhong [extratime] - Goal: 1-0 H Amarjit Singh (98').

Note-1: Mohun Bagan AC have sacked their coach Subrata Bhattcharya and his assistant Shyamal Banerjee for the poor results in the 9th National League with the former champions in danger of getting relegated. The club has appointed seasoned Amal Datta as their new coach with former longtime Bagan player Satjayit Chatterjee coming in as assistant coach for the rest of the NFL season.
An emergency meeting was held last night between club officials and special officers with a fast decision taken to relieve Subrata off his duties. Amal Datta was then contacted and Datta agreed to take over from today itself.
Subrata was sacked with the two away losses to Fransa and Salgaocar being the last act of an unsuccessful 9th NFL campaign and a mixed season as a whole. Bagan have never really clicked as a team, though the team had talent at its disposal.
Amal Datta came to the Mohun Bagan tent today to meet the players. They held a meeting and no training to talk about the current situation and the work at hand. The team would train again tomorrow.

Note-2: India captain Baichung Bhutia was in the Assam capital Guwahati today to make an appearance for his sponsors Sleepwell, for whom he is a brand ambassador.
Talking to the media Baichung said that the AIFF should try to keep national coach Stephen Constantine under whom the national team has developed over the last few years. This comes in contrast to what officials, former footballers and so-called pundits have said or demanded. Some have over the last few month's wanted the sacking of Constantine. But Baichung was and is of a different view as the team has developed in every aspect under the Englishmen.
Baichung also said he would try to help Assam prepare their state team for the National Games later this year in Guwahati, if officially approached and if he had the needed time between his asignments.

Note-3: The "1st Boxer Goa U12 Seven-A-Side football festival" would be jointly organised by the Goa FA and Boxer Sports in the third week of April 2005. The tournament would be held on a zonal format and under youth football rules.

19. March
9th National League - Goa: Sporting Clube de Goa 1-2 Dempo SC - Goals: 0-1 Ranty Martins Soleye (27'), 0-2 Majekodumni Bolaji (85'), 1-2 MacPherlin Dudu Omagbemi (90+').
Federation Cup champions Dempo SC took revenge on Sporting Clube de Goa with a 2-1 victory against their Goan rivals in the 9th National League at the Nehru Stadium, Margao after having beat trashed by the same opponent just three days ago. After today's win Dempo joined league leaders East Bengal at the top of the NFL standings with 24 points, but the champions have a match in hand and could go three points clear again. Sporting Clube's march towards the top of the league was stopped today as they remain on 20 points from 12 matches.
Dempo looked a different team than three days ago willing to correct their mistakes and get the three points to bring their title challenge back on track. The Dempo midfield of Riston Rodrigues, Johnny D'Cruz and Nascimento Silveira worked in tandem to create chances for their strikers. The first chance came RC Prakash's way but his shot came off the woodwork in the 18.minute. Dempo took a deserved lead in the 27.minute when their Nigerian striker Ranty Martins Soleye scored of a penalty. The penalty was given by referee P Bhaskar when Sporting Clube's John Barreto handled the ball in the area off a Johnny D'Cruz shot. Sporting Clube meanwhile had no real chance in the first half.
After the breather the match became more even with Sporting Clube having chances to get the equaliser. The Sporting Clube Nigerian trio of captain MacPherlin Dudu Omagbemi, Adebayo Adewusi and Chidi Edeh all had a look at goal, with the best chance came substitutes Nicholas L Rodrigues' way when his freekick was headed on by Adebayo but it hit the crossbar. Dempo consolidated their lead in the 85.minute of a counter attack, when Nascimento Silveira broke free on the left and crossed the ball into the area for Majekodumni Bolaji to head home. Sporting Clube could only reduce the deficit in injury time through a Dudu freekick.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Nascimento Silveira (Dempo).

Note-1: Indian national TV broadcaster Doordarshan will telecast 23 matches live from the 9th National League second phase over the coming weeks. The telecast would start with the Churchill Brothers SC vs. Dempo SC Goan derby on Tuesday.
For the complete TV schedule go to the >>IndianFootball.Com NFL Special.

Note-2: Yesterday in the Lok Sabha (lower House of Parliament) the Goan MP Churchill Alemao (Congress), who runs the Churchill Brothers football club through his Alemao family, has pleaded in the house to give football enough attention so that India could qualify for the next World Cup.
Alemao brought to the attention of the house that football had a vast history across the country especially in Bengal, Goa and Kerala. Also he didn't want to play football against cricket, but wanted football to get the needed support from the government.
Alemao's logic was simple. "If a small African country like Cameroon can play World Cup football, why not India, a country of a billion people?" he asked.

18. March
9th National League - Mumbai: Mahindra United 1-1 Vasco SC - Goals: 0-1 Fabio Xavier Soares (16'), 1-1 Rogerio Calisto de Almeida (26').
Mahindra United continued with their habit of not picking up full points, in their home matches at the Cooperage ground, in this 9th National League match. This time it was Vasco SC's turn to return with the customary point from Mumbai.
The final score need hardly be mentioned. 1-1 it definitely was. 4-4-2 the opposition desiring a draw did play and score first they did, and United obliged by getting an equalizer, but nothing more. A person who just glances at the results for the United matches at Cooperage, could be forgiven for wondering that something has gone wrong with the website, for the same result is being repeated
Vasco were struggling in the league for most of the season, and had only recently picked up a few points in succession. So one couldn't begrudge them their desire to play for a draw. Therefore, like most teams before them, who had left Mumbai with a draw, they too employed the 4-4-2 formation, to counter United's 5-3-2 (3-5-2). Vinu Jose and captain Agnelo Colaco were the centre-backs, helped out in defence by full-backs Nicolau Colaco on the right, and Samson Fernandes on the left. Sushanth Mathew and Francis Fernandes ran the central midfield, with Anthony Pereira on their right, and K Anees on their left. Sidney Rodrigues played behind and off the main central striker, Fabio Soares. Often for United, Jatin Singh Bisht drifted wide right, and Shanmugam Venkatesh wide-left, with Rodrigo de Almeida dropping deeper in the 'hole', or to help in build-up play.
It was visible within the first few minutes man-of-the match Bisht's involvement in most of United's play, especially as he drifted right, and when he tried to combine with the wing-back Surkumar Singh (and later Steven Dias). Inside 10 minutes, United had tried several balls down that right side, trying to get in behind Samson Fernandes. But more often than not, these attacks were unsuccessful, as United did not make the decisive pass quickly enough, in and near the penalty-box, when they got there. Venkatesh too, quite naturally, was involved in a lot of United's play. He was having some nice touches of the ball, and seemed to be in good nick early on in the match, probably raising expectations of the United supporters, who longed for him to return to his sublime best.
Surkumar was looking a bit ragged early on. He did give the ball away on a few occasions, and was getting his tackle timing wrong too a few times. A free-kick from one such of his fouls, led to Vasco's opening goal. Sidney's in-swinging right-footed free-kick was well directed and dipped dangerously, and it was Fabio who got in behind the United defence to meet the ball, to put it into the net for the lead to Vasco. This occurred 16 minutes on, and like always, United probably felt that they had enough time to hit-back.
United however, were losing the middle-of-the-park battle quite often, until and around then. Resultantly, they tried to get the ball up the field quicker, but invariably often lost possession more than they would have preferred. It was only after 21 minutes had gone, that a United attacking move led to a shot on target. This too was unthreatening, straight at Vasco goalkeeper Virender Singh, from Kalia Koluthungan, the defensive midfielder, from outside the 'D'. Vasco's back four, was quite conservative, and the full-backs rarely ventured up the field. United's first threatening opportunity came 25 minutes on. A lovely first-time through pass by Venkatesh let Flavio in behind the caught-square defender, and he was one-on-one against goalkeeper Virender. It was a pity that he lost his composure, and only managed a wasted shot, straight at Virender.
But the equalizer came soon after. 26 minutes on, Bisht's nice in-swinging corner from the left, was deflected off a United head among the crowd of bodies, and Rodrigo, who had anticipated the accidental flick-on well, headed in the equalizer.
A minute later, and Venkatesh laid the ball on for onrushing Surkumar to shoot. Surkumar however, refrained, and was dispossessed. That was one of Surkumar's last involvements, as he was substituted in the 27th minute. He had seemed a bit out-of-sorts, and it was later informed that he had been carrying a painful knock.
30 minutes over, and now United were beginning to dominate. Vasco were defending more and more, with their midfield being pushed further back, as the team dropped deeper and deeper, probably looking to reach half-time at 1-1. Their attacking rhythm was not very present now. All this allowed Koluthungan too to push forward in midfield. Venkatesh and Bisht were interchanging positions too sometimes, to try and confuse the Vasco defenders. Venkatesh was beginning to be fouled more often, rather than be allowed to thread a deadly pass. In the 42nd minute, Venkatesh and Bisht played a delicate one-two pass down the right flank, to get around the Vasco left-full-back. Venkatesh's deadly low-cross fizzed across the face of goal, with Virender only being able to parry at it. That was the first half action.
The second half was a very dull affair as a spectacle. Although United were encamped in the Vasco third of the field, in the first 10 minutes, they created nothing. On a counter-attack, Fabio put Anees through into the penalty box, but Sandip Nandy closed him down well, to stop Vasco regaining the lead. The next twenty minutes were scrappy. Neither team really created anything at all. Abhishek Yadav's replacement of Koluthungan, though a positive move, also depleted United's midfield presence. 74 minutes on, Venkatesh created space with a good touch, to lay it on for Bisht to shoot, but he shot wide with his toe. Neither team got any meaningful number of passes together, and United could be considered at times a bit guilty of over-elaborateness near the goal. Only in the 90th minute again did United have a chance of note. Rodrigo's ran down the right, and Flavio shot on goal off Rodrigo's pass. Despite Virender dropping the shot, no United player was following up, just in case, to take advantage. Thus, it finished 1-1, as usual.
The fans of Inter Milan, sick of the number of draws by their team this season, could feel comforted to a certain extent, by the fact that theirs is not the only star-studded team having a freakish season. Somebody should tell them about Mahindra United.
MAHINDRA: Sandip Nandy, Covan Lawrence, Mahesh Gawli, Peter Siddique, Surkumar Singh (28' Steven Dias), Debabrata Roy, Shanmugam Venkatesh, Jatin Singh Bisht, Kalia Koluthungan (66' Abhishek Yadav), Flavio de Oliveira Rodrigues, Rodrigo Calisto de Almeida.
VASCO: Virender Singh, Nicolau Colaco, Agnelo Colaco, Vinu Jose, Samson Fernandes, K Anees, Sushanth Mathew, Francis Fernandes, Anthony Pereira (85' K Aseem), Sidney Santana Rodrigues, Fabio Xavier Soares (90+1' Krishnan Nair Ajayan).
REFEREE: Subrata Das (West Bengal).
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Jatin Singh Bisht (Mahindra).

9th National League - Goa: Salgaocar SC 1-0 Mohun Bagan AC - Goal: 1-0 Felix Ibrebru (74').
It was a match between two former champions, but the 9th National League tie between Salgaocar SC and Mohun Bagan AC never rose to any great heights at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. Both sides are fighting against relegation this season and in the end Salgaocar prevailed through a goal from their Nigerian striker Felix Ibrebru. After having both played 13 matches, Salgaocar and Mohun Bagan are level on points, both having 15, but Salgaocar are ahead of their Calcutta rivals on goal difference.
There wasn't much of goalmouth action in the first half with Salgaocar having the control of the midfield. Youngster Bhuvan Krishna Joshi had the two best chances for the green-and-white with long-range efforts in the 12. and 34.minute, who stepped up their attack towards the end of the first half and had two chances from their strikers Nigerian Felix Ibrebru and Brazilian Fabio dos Passos off headers. Bagan their best and only chance of the first half early on through a shot of wingback Dulal Biswas which had saved by Salgaocar keeper Juje Siddi.
Salgaocar got the winner in the 74.minute when midfielder Rocus Lamare found the gap in the Bagan defence between Eduardo Coelho and Mehraj Din Wadoo for Felix Ibrebru, who chipped the ball over keeper Bibhas Ghosh, who was totally out of position. Bagan did wake-up after falling behind, but either their shots where off target or Juje Siddi was in the way.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Felix Ibrebru (Salgaocar).
Detailed information and pictures are available at the >>IndianFootball.Com NFL Special.

Note-1: The city of Mumbai hopes to be witness to a one-of-a-kind event. "Soccer Twist", as it will be known, plans to showcase the game of soccer in a very different fashion, while at the same time striving to promote the sport all around. Ashwamedha Entertainment (A division of Rudraksha Advertising Pvt. Ltd.), has hit upon this "twist" of a concept of the Soccer theme. The venue of the event, is a discotheque, which will be suitably decked up to create an ambience complementing the theme. A Soccer Stadium environ is to be created, along with the accompanying accessories like goals and footballs, and even the staff plan to be attired in the football theme. Such a decor will be accompanied with some relevant sporty soft rock, retro, and R'n'B music. Live trivia, yes with prizes from sponsors, will be conducted during the course of the event to educate the visitors more about the sport. The target audience includes Corporates, Industrialists, Entrepreneurs, College Students, Models, Celebrities, and Political Bodies, all of whom are in a position, in some way or other, to popularize this Beautiful game in the country. There will also be a live demonstration of the salient features of the sport by eminent and professional soccer players during the event, and an interactive session of the players with the visitors.
Some of these invitees include: Dereyk D'Souza (former International and Indian coach); Players: Mahesh Kajania (U.B.I), Neville Dadid (R.C.F), Amar Ansari (R.C.F), Keegan Pereira (Mahindra U19), Saurab Sharma (B.O.B), Karim Shaikh (DENA BANK),
All these soccer players come under the roof of "MUMBAI DISTRICT FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION".
The Location is The "Velocity" dicotheque, Tardeo, Mumbai.
The Date is Saturday, March 19, 2005
The Time is from 21:30 IST (17.00 CET) Onwards.
So all you Soccer fanatics, and Soccer non-fanatics, in or near the Mumbai area make your way down to Velocity, at the above specified time and date. For those of you who will still be unable to attend, log on to IndianFootball.com, invited as an Official Media Partner for the event, to read all about how this innovative concept pans out.

Note-2: Indian international and East Bengal defender Deepak Kumar Mondal was operated on his torn ligament of his right leg by Dr. Anant Joshi at the private Calcutta nursing home Woodlands. Dr. Joshi said afterwards that the operation went off well, but that Deepak could be out for six to nine month's.

Note-3: The IFA will launch the first Centre of Excellence by a state association in India in the coming month at the SAI Centre at the Saltlake Stadium complex. The chief coach would be respected youth coach Ananta Ghosh, of the SAI Eastern centre with former IFA secretary Ranjit Gupta asked to supervise the centre in the name of the IFA.

17. March
Note-1: Here some news on two of the best known "Players of Indian Origin".
Midfielder Vikash Dhorasoo, who plays his club football for Italian giants AC Milan has been recalled after some years to the French national team for upcoming 2006 World Cup qualifiers. France coach Raymond Domenech recalled Dhorasoo besides five other players. France will host Switzerland at the Stade de France on March 26 before travelling to Israel on March 29.
Meanwhile in England Harpal Singh's month-long loan stint at relegation-fighting League One side Stockport County has been extended by another month by his club Leeds United.

16. March
AFC Cup 2004 - Balkanabat - Group A: Nebitchi FC, TURKMENISTAN 3-2 East Bengal Club - Goals: 1-0 Vitaliy Alikperov (1'), 1-1 Marcos Secco (51'), 2-1 Rowshen Meredov (66'), 3-1 Hojaamet Arazov (83'), 3-2 Baichung Bhutia (88').
Indian champions East Bengal suffered their first defeat of the AFC Cup 2005 campaign away to Nebitchi FC of Turkmenistan in a Group A match at the Nebitchi Stadium, Balkanabat. Nebitchi FC won 3-2 against East Bengal in unfamiliar weather conditions for an Indian team.

9th National League - Goa: Dempo SC 0-4 Sporting Clube de Goa - Goals: 0-1,0-2 MacPherlin Dudu Omagbemi (31',35'), 0-3,0-4 Chidi Edeh (50',72').
Title-contenders Dempo SC suffered a humiliating 0-4 loss to Goan rivals Sporting Clube de Goa in the 9th National League at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. For the Federation Cup champions it was the second defeat in 11 matches, with the earlier loss having come against another Goan side in Fransa FC. Sporting Clube had another of their excellent days and took Dempo apart, but due to the inconsistancy of the team, one will have to see what Sporting Clube can achieve this season. After having both played 11 matches Dempo remain in second position with 21 points, while Sporting Clube jumped into third position with now 20 points.
Sporting Clube played an attacking game and overran Dempo, who played their worst match of the season and who where never in the match. Without keeper Satish Kumar the defeat could have been even higher and just one real chance in 90 minutes for a team like Dempo says it all. Sporting Clube meant business from the onset with coach Chukwama playing a three-man attack. The Nigerian duo of MacPherlin Dudu Omagbemi and Chidi Edeh played upfront with Alvito Rodrigues just behind them.
Sporting Clube opened the score sheet in the 31.minute when Dudu got to a Chidi header and slotted home into an empty net after getting past defender Dominic Noronha and keeper Satish Kumar. The orange-and-white earned a penalty when Dempo defender Majekodumni Bolaji brought down Chidi in the 35.minute. Dudu's spotkick was blocked by Satish Kumar, but Dudu scored of the rebound as he was fasted to get to the ball. Dudu thereafter had chances to complete his hattrick, but he just could not add another goal to his personal tally. It was left to his fellow countryman and striker Chidi to twice add to the tally after the breather. Chidi, who got the "Man of the Match" award for his strong performance, scored in the 50.minute of a pass from Alvito Rodrigues and added another in the 72.minute. To add to Dempo's misery midfielder Clifford Miranda got his marching orders in the 87.minute for a second booking.
But Dempo doesn't have to worry as the chance to take revenge will come sooner than one would normally expect, in three days time, when the sides meet again in a Round 12 match-up. Today's match had been postponed from early-February due to Sporting Clube having had an accident in Calcutta in late-January.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Chidi Edeh (Sporting Clube).

Note-1: The German FA (DFB) is organising a two month youth football coaching course for coaches from around the world from August 29 to October 28, 2005 in the east German city of Leipzig.
The course is a residential one with coaches wanting to apply having to be under 40 years of age and having experience either as a player, coach or PE teacher.
While in Goa the Goa FA is collaborating with the German consulate for the applicants; in Calcutta the IFA supports the programme but anyone willing to apply would have to directly apply to the German Consulate General in Alipore. The deadline for applications is May 15 and if anyone and how many are accepted is not known at the moment. It depends on the global response to the course.
The participants stay in Germany would be sponsored by the foreign office of the Federal Republic of Germany with the participants having to bear the costs of their flights to and from Germany.
We will give you more information whenever we get them.

Note-2: Might FIFA change the way the FIFA World ranking is calculated?
At least FIFA is set to review the FIFA World Ranking calculation procedure. At their meetings on Monday in Zurich under the chairmanship of Michel Platini (France) and Ángel María Villar Llona (Spain) respectively, the FIFA Technical and Development Committee and the FIFA Football Committee confirmed that FIFA would review the current methods used to calculate the FIFA World Ranking. Although there were diverse opinions as to what criteria should be taken into consideration when calculating the ranking, the committees unanimously reconfirmed the importance of the ranking as a valuable tool to help provide an objective comparison amongst FIFA member associations' representative 'A' teams. A working group will be established to review the potential modifications and provide a comprehensive dossier of proposals.

Note-3: In an interesting bit of news we received only today, the women teams of Orissa and West Bengal played a exhibition match on Sunday at the Ispat Stadium, Rourkela in Orissa in aid of Tsunami affected children living in SOS children villages. The match was organised by the SOS Children's Village of India and IGH Recreation Club.
Coming to the match it ended two-all. With Bengal captain Sharmila Sapui opening the score, a double strike by Pinki Bompal Nagar gave Orissa the lead, but Bengal restored parity before the end through Rinku Ghosh.

15. March
9th National League - Goa: Fransa FC 2-1 Mohun Bagan AC - Goals: 1-0 Peter Rodrigues (15'), 2-0 Benjamin Owusu Ansah (66'), 2-1 Roberto Mendes Silva (81').
Debutants Fransa FC scored a 2-1 home victory against former champions Mohun Bagan AC in the 9th National League at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. For Fransa it was an identical victory as in their away tie last month in Calcutta, for Bagan another defeat in this NFL, their fifth in 12 matches. After having played 12 matches, Fransa now have 18 points and moved into fourth position, while Mohun Bagan have 15 points and remain seventh in the league.
Fransa had more of the match in the first half. The Goan side had their first chance in the 9.minute when a Sebastiao Endro shot went just wide of a Joseph Toochukwu Ogor cross. Sebastiao got another chance in a good position three minutes later but Bagan defender Ajibade Babalade was there to clear the danger. After missing two chances Fransa took the lead in the 15.minute when a Jules Alberto Dias freekick off a deflection from a Bagan player landed in the way of Peter Rodrigues, whose grounder went to the left of keeper Prasanta Dora into the net. Bagan down by a goal tried to go for the equaliser. First a Basudeb Mondal shot went over the goal, then a well-taken shot by Ashim Biswas hit the bar. Ashim soon had to leave the field injured with youngster Jerry Zirsanga coming in as his replacement. Fransa took the slender lead into the breather with no real chances for the rest of the first half.
After the lemon break Fransa came out with the desire to increase the lead and their attacks paid dividend when in the 66.minute they doubled the lead. Midfielder Peter Rodrigues sent a diagonal pass from the right into the box to Ghanian striker Benjamin Owusu Ansah, whose left-footer went into the goal of a deflection from a Bagan defender. Up by two goals, Fransa didn't continue to attack, while Bagan like after the first goal regouped well and started to put the Fransa goal under pressure. The man behind the attacks was midfielder Renedy Singh, who worked along the left to create chances for the strikers. Bagan reduced the deficit in the 81.minute of a Renedy cross from the left which Brazilian striker Roberto Mendes Silva headed in. Bagan actually even got a chance to equalise in the 88.minute when another Renedy cross met the head of substitute Abhay Kumar, but his header went over the crossbar. All in vain and all points remained in Goa.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Peter Rodrigues (Fransa).

Note-1: East Bengal Club have made the difficult trip from Calcutta to Balkanabat via Delhi and Ashkhabad. It wasn't an easy journey and the club hasn't received the threatment one could and should expect for an Asian continental level AFC Cup match. The 500km journey from Ashkhabad to Balkanabat was finally in a bus and not by plane.
The surrounding circumstances aren't easy, but who wants to be successful in the AFC Cup has to get through such situations. The weather in central Asia is cool with temperatures around 5°C, cool for people accustomed to 30°+ in Calcutta plus constant rains showers. Further the ground isn't of international standard, but a team from Calcutta should not complain about ground conditions. One just needs to remember the AFC Cup tie against Al-Jaish last September at the Saltlake Stadium, which where more water sports than football. But under the rains, the ground is not too heavy, as the grounds have a different composition there.
Coming to football, Nebitchi FC will not be an easy opponent. The Turkmen held Group A favourites Al-Faysali to a one-all draw away in Jordan and are wanting to pick-up three points from their first home match. Typical for footballers of a former Soviet state, this side is made up of well built players, who are technically sound.
But a champions club and that is what East Bengal are in India and want to be in Asia, needs to go through such difficult situations. One can only grow through such difficult matches.

Note-2: The governing body of the Assam FA will be meeting on March 27 at the AFA office premises. A number of issues would be discussed, among them the National Games preparation of the men and women state teams and the calendar for the 2005/06 season.

14. March
9th National League - Goa: Salgaocar SC 0-1 Churchill Brothers SC - Goal: 0-1 Yakubu Yusif (45').
Churchill Brothers SC scored another important Goan derby victory in the 9th National League in their first for survival. This time a strike from Ghanian sharp-shooter Yakubu Yusif was enough for the Salcete-based team to beat former champions Salgocar SC at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. But after today's match both teams remain in the relegation zone in ninth and tenth spot after 12 matches, with Churchill Brothers now on 13 points, one more than Salgaocar's tally.
The first half action was mainly confined to the midfield with both sides trying to get possession. The first good chance came Salgaocar's way in the 29.minute when Samson Singh tried a long-ranger, but no real danger for the Churchill Brothers goal as the ball went straight into the hands of keeper Mark Mascarenhas. On the stroke of halftime Churchill got the winning goal, when a Subhashish Roy Chowdhury corner was headed on by Brazilian Marcos Pereira to Yakubu Yusif and the Ghanian striker made no mistake to shot home the ball with a strong and placed shot. In injury time Churchill could have doubled their lead after Yakubu send a pass to Marcos, but his shot sailed over the crossbar.
Salgaocar came out of the lemon break with an urge to get the equaliser, but a much improved Churchill side denied them the goal. Salgaocar's new Brazilian striker Fabio Dos Passos was denied twice by keeper Mascarenhas, while the shot of midfielder Rocus Lamare went wide.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Yakubu Yusif (Churchill).

Note-1: Might Brazilian striker Juliano Martins be leaving champion East Bengal soon?
As per infos coming from Calcutta, anything is possible in a situation, where the language barrier seems to have created a lot of problems.
Here a run down of events of the last few days. Juliano, who was originally part of the squad travelling to Turkmenistan to play an AFC Cup away tie, was scratched from the team for not answering a show-cause notice slapped on him by his club. The notice had been send as Juliano had misbehaved with the coach at halftime of last weeks AFC Cup tie, after he got to know that he would be substituted. The player said, he could not write or understand English, so he couldn't answer the notice and that he had apologised to the coach and the team for his behaviour. Now Juliano claimed he hadn't been paid his February salary and wanted his passport back, but that wasn't possible as this was in Delhi with the other squad members passports for the Turkmenistan visas to be granted. But the club said, the passport would be returned today and all players had been paid their salaries and outstanding dues. Now as Juliano hasn't received his passport, he has contacted lawyers in Brazil to see what next steps he can take.
This all doesn't sound too good, but one would hope all is sorted in the interest of all parties involved...

13. March
9th National League - Goa: Vasco SC 0-3 Sporting Clube de Goa - Goals: 0-1,0-3 Joseph Pereira (12',61'), 0-2 Alvito Rodrigues (37').
Sporting Clube de Goa scored a convincing 3-0 away victory against bottom of the league side Vasco SC in a Goan derby in the 9th National League at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. Sporting Clube returned to winning ways after only getting a point from their last three matches, while Vasco remain winless at home after getting their first couple of victories away in Calcutta. Sporting Clube moved into fourth spot with now 17 points from 10 matches, with a match against Dempo in hand. Relegation-threathened Vasco remain on eight points from 11 matches.
Sporting Clube wanted to get back to winning ways and the way they played today nothing else could have been expected from the final outcome and that even though Sporting Clube's Nigerian Clifford Chukwama fielded a number of his bench players. The key man for Sporting Clube was their midfielder Joseph Pereira, who scored a brace and controlled proceedings from the middle. For his performance, he later to the "Man of the Match" award.
Sporting Clube took the lead in the 12.minute when Joseph Pereira scored of a Cedric Pixeito corner. The Panjim team doubled the lead in the 37.minute when Nigerian striker Chidi Edeh went past Vasco defender Agnelo Colaco and played a square pass to Alvito Rodrigues, whose shot went into the goal past a stranded keeper Virender Singh. Sporting Clube sealed the victory when Joseph Pereira scored his second goal of the afternoon in the 61.minute off a pass from Chidi Edeh.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Joseph Pereira (Sporting Clube).

9th National League - Calcutta: Tollygunge Agragami 1-0 State Bank of Travancore - Goal: 1-0 Suley Musah (30').
Tollygunge Agragami returned to winning ways in the 9th National League with a lone goal victory against promoted State Bank of Travancore at the near-empty Saltlake Stadium, Calcutta. Tollygunge returned to winning ways after going winless in six matches. The Calcutta side now have 14 points from 12 matches and moved out of the relegation places. For SBT it was the fourth loss in a row. They remain in 11th spot with only nine points from 12 matches.
Tollygunge wanted and needed the three points from today's match not to slip further in the table. Tollygunge had much more of the chances but the Kerala Bankmen could have also earned something from the match had their strikers not a bad day in office.
Tolly could have gone ahead in the 12.minute when Gouranga Datta's shot just went wide. Tollygunge then took the lead on the half hour mark when Ghanian Suley Musah, playing in central midfield today, scored of a back pass from Surojit Bose inside the area. The game opened-up after Tollygunge took the lead as SBT went in search of the equaliser and that gave Tollygunge a lot of space for counter-attacks as the Bankmen often left their defence exposed, but in goalkeeper PV Harshal Rehman had a safe pair of hands, who denied Tollygunge on numerous occasions to double their lead. Alone Gouranga could or should have scored a hattrick on the day. But the lone goal was enough to take Tollygunge home.
TOLLYGUNGE: Arindam Ghosh, Kabijit Khotel (67' Amitava Chanda), Debkumar Sashmal, Isiaka Awoyemi, Saumik Dey, Gouranga Datta, Suman Datta, Suley Musah, Santosh Singh (61' Chinmoy Sarkar), Surojit Bose (85' Tarif Ahmed), Akeem Abul Alem.
SBT: PV Harshal Rehman, V Sivakumar, Paul Anthony (35' NP Pradeep), M Abdul Basheer, Prince Paulose, MA Abdul Naushad, AB Kabeer, Martyn John (62' Mohammed Harris), MA Abdul Hakkim, AG Mohammed Aslam (42' Anil Kumar), T Asif Saheer.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Suley Musah (Tollygunge).

Steel Express Trophy, Chakradharpur - Final: Tata Football Academy 1-1,4-2 Mohammedan Sporting Club [penalties] - Goals: 1-0 Satish Kumar (22'), 1-1 Amjad Hussain (59').

12. March
Note-1: Who is the highest goalscorer of India's oldest football tournament, the Durand Cup? This is a question that Raju Gusain of HT - Dehra Dun tried to answer in the following article:
Confusion prevails over the record of the highest goal scorer in one Durand Cup tournament. The record presently stands in the name of Mohammed Habib of East Bengal, who scored 12 goals in the 1972 Durand Cup. But football experts here claim that local Bhupender Rawat of the Gorkha Brigade too scored an equal number of goals in the 1966 edition of the football tourney.
A keen football follower of Dehra Dun, Shatrughan Mehta says, "As far as game sense is concerned, I consider Bhupender as the best ever center forward the country has ever produced. He scored the maximum goals in the Durand Cup 1966." Not only Mehta, many other football lovers also hold a similar view.
When approached, Bhupender Rawat said, "I scored 12 goals in six matches. My best goal was a diving header against the Mohun Bagan." He was speaking to HT on his recent visit to the state capital. Many sports experts back his claim.
In 1966, the Gorkha Brigade gave a memorable performance. It defeated the Sikh Regiment 2-0 to lift the Durand Cup for the first time. In the league matches, the team edged out New Delhi Heroes 5-0, Leaders 4-1, RAC Bikaner 1-1 (re play 8-1) and Mohammedan Sporting 4-0. The semi final saw the Brigade registering a 2-0 victory over the Mohun Bagan.

Note-2: East Bengal left Calcutta tonight for their AFC Cup away tie against Turkmen side Nebitchi FC. And not part of the team was Brazilian Juliano Martins, who was left behind as he had not answered the show-cause notice to the club. And one will have to see how this episode ends.
East Bengal officials told IndianFootball.Com that the planning of the trip to Turkmenistan has been a complete nightmare, with the biggest problem being the 500km trip from the capital Ashkhabad to Balkanabat. But they somehow managed to get all done.
Meanwhile good news for Subhas Chakraborty, who is set to return to the East Bengal squad for the NFL tie against JCT Mills on March 21 after a nine month long injury layoff.

Note-3: The National Games are set to be held in the Northeast in the state of Assam and the Assam FA wants their football team to play a good and positive role in the football tournament. For that the AFA has set a spotting and coaching plan for across the state.
The first phase would begin on March 14 with three camps kicking-off simultaneously across the state in Jorhat, Nagaon and Kokrajhar. Only juniors or talented footballers have been invited to the camps with state level players joining in at later camps. From each first phase camp 20 players would be selected for follow-up camps.

Note-4: As was only known today former Assam footballer Abdul Hai died on thursday at the Guwahati nursing home after a prolonged illness. Hai, a former footballer with Nabajyoti Club in the Guwahati league was 55. Hai has also represented Guwahati in the Assam inter-district championships.

11. March
Note-1: As per infos we have received from Fiji the Indian national team is set to tour the Pacific island nation in August to play there. This was announced by Fiji FA president Dr Samshu-ud Dean Sahu Khan in Suva on wednesday evening.
"We have the India national team coming in August and the tour has been confirmed and is being orgnaised by Sports Fiji," Khan said.
If this tour takes place, it would be an interesting trip for the national team against a totally unknown opponent. Against our rankings of 133, Fiji is ranked five places below us in 138 in the FIFA World Rankings.
We will try and get a confirmation on this from the AIFF.

Note-2: East Bengal's Brazilian striker Juliano Martins has been show-caused by his club for making his displeasure known through gestures at being replaced by his coach Subhas Bhowmick in the AFC Cup tie on wednesday against Bangladesh side Mukti Joddha KC. Juliano has been given 24 hours to reply to the notice, otherwise he would be left out of the travelling squad to Turkmenistan. Also the club would only allow the Brazilian to travel with the team, if the answer was found to be satisfying.
East Bengal would leave Calcutta tomorrow evening for the capital new Delhi, from where the team would fly to Ashkhabad on Sunday morning.

Note-3: The compulsory Cardio-Pulmonary-Resuscitation training course for referee's under the jurisdiction of the IFA in West Bengal starts tomorrow at Poddar Court in Calcutta. The referee's would learn to use CPR in theoretical and practical classes, and also would have to pass a test on this. The batch courses would continue until April 10.

10. March
Note-1: Is the Indian national football team going to Tour Pakistan in June or not?
The situation seems to be very unclear with different persons saying different things about the tour in June. In India there is a question mark on the tour, while in Pakistan they seem to already prepare for it.
As we reported the AIFF president said just a couple of days back that the Pakistan FF would be informed that the Indian team could not travel to Pakistan due to a Tsunami charity match in mid-June, which the AIFF would be hosting.
Meanwhile the AIFF secretary Alberto Colaco is saying something totally different. The Tsunami match would be played between India and an Asian XI with June 4 been seen the likely date and Calcutta as the venue. So no clash of date, but on the Pakistan Tour Colaco told PTI: "We have proposed the dates but are yet to get any official response."
That is a different version from what the PFF is saying in Pakistan, where it had been reported that the AIFF had accepted the proposed schedule.
So we will have to wait and see how things unfold further. One can only hope that after all this the Pakistan Tour finally takes place.

Note-2: The East Bengal management had been fearful about their trip to Turkmenistan for next weeks AFC Cup match against Nebitchi FC taking place. No reply from their opponents on visa regulations and requirements, the club even asked the AFC for help in the matter, so East Bengal are not at fault, if for some reasons the club could not travel to the central Asian country.
Now all has been cleared and the East Bengal contingent would receive their visas on arrival in Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan's capital.

9. March
AFC Cup 2004 - Calcutta - Group A: East Bengal Club 0-0 Mukti Joddha KC, BANGLADESH - Goals: none.
Indian champions East Bengal Club were held to a goalless draw by Bangladesh Federation Cup winners Mukti Joddha KC in the AFC Cup 2005 Group A opener at the Saltlake Stadium. As the other match between Al Faysali of Jordan and Nebitchi FC from Turkmenistan also ended in a draw, all four teams in the group ended matchday one with one point.
An expected easy outing turned out to be much more difficult for the red-and-gold brigade against a very disciplined side from Dhaka, who organised their defence first and then also ventured out to score a goal. East Bengal's forward trio upfront of Baichung Bhutia, Juliano Martins and Earnest Jemeriah weren't as sharp as they have been lately in an East Bengal team, which didn't play to it's true potential. Surely East Bengal had more of the exchanges, especially in the second half where Mukti Joddha went into a defensive shell. But what should worry East Bengal is that Mukti Joddha had the better chances on the day, where East Bengal's chances often ended in the box with the Mukti Joddha defenders blocking the attacks.
East Bengal could have gone ahead in the 16.minute when Brazilian striker Juliano centred the ball in the 16.minute, but it ended in a mess infront of the opponents goal, who were able to clear. In the 27.minute Mukti Joddha had the best chance of the day. A surprise long throw-in by Sheikh Belal Ahmed was headed on by Kanchan, but the ball hit the post. And the surprise factor remained in Belal's throw-in's on a number occasions later in the match, but keeper Rajat Ghosh Dasdidar later in the match intercepted the possible danger. Subhas Bhowmick reacted and brought on Alvito D'Cunha to strengthen the midfield and it paid off for the midfielder, who got more control of the match, but the strikers just couldn't score. Mukti Joddha had another good chance in the 53.minute when Saifur Rahman Moni shot goalwards, but luckily debutant Brazilian defender Marcos Secco dived to save the shot.
EAST BENGAL: Rajat Ghosh Dastidar, Marcos Secco, Debjit Ghosh, Selwyn Fernandes, Syed Rahim Nabi, Climax Lawrence (85' Muttath Suresh), Chandan Das, Shylo Malsawmtluanga (68' Dipankar Roy), Earnest Jeremiah, Baichung Bhutia, Juliano Martins (46' Alvito D'Cunha).
MUKTI JODDHA: Titumir Chowdhury, Charles Ghansa Benin, Rajani Kanta Barman, Mohammed Arman, Mohammed Saiful Islam (84' Mohammed Rony), Rokonuzzaman Kanchan, Habimana Hery, Mohammed Azmul Hossain Bidduth, Saifur Rahman Moni, Mohammed Rasheed Ahmed Pappu, Sheikh Belal Ahmed (58' Firoj Mahmud H Titu).
REFEREE: Kadyrbek Chynybekov (Kyrgyzstan).

AFC Cup 2004 - Beirut - Group B: Al-Ahed, LEBANON 1-0 Dempo SC - Goal: 1-0 Armen Halgedian (54' - penalty).
Federation Cup champions Dempo SC made a unsuccessful debut in the continental AFC Cup with a lone goal defeat at the hands of Lebanese side Al-Ahed in a Group B match at the Beirut Municipal Stadium. After a goalless first half, the winner for Al-Ahed came in the 54.minute courtesy of a penalty, which Armenian striker Armen Halgedian scored against a depleted Dempo side which missed six regular players.

9th National League - Goa: Sporting Clube de Goa - Churchill Brothers SC - Goals: 1-0 Chidi Edeh (25'), 1-1,1-2,1-3 Yakubu Yusif (34',63',87').
Churchill Brothers rode on the goalscoring skills of Ghanian Sharpshooter Yakubu Yusif to score a much-needed 3-1 victory against Goan rivals Sporting Clube de Goa in a 9th National League match at the Nehru Stadium, Margao. Churchill Brothers left the bottom spot of the NFL table and moved into 10th place after the forst-leg with now 10 points from 11 matches, while Sporting Clube remain on 14 points from nine matches with two matches in hand against other Goan rivals Vasco SC and Dempo SC.
Trusted Ghanian striker Yakubu Yusif was the match winner for Churchill Brothers scoring all three goals for his team today, who put together their best performance of the 9th NFL so far.
Churchill had to replace their young keeper Vinay Singh early on after 19 minutes as he had sustained a head injury from a collision with Sporting Clube's Nigerian striker Chidi Edeh. Vinay was replaced by Marc Mascarenhas and he had to conceed the lead to Sporting Clube as Chidi headed in a cross from Anthony Levino Pereira in the 25.minute, but thereafter Marc's heroics along with the goalscoring abilities of Yakubu gave Churchill Brothers the win. Churchill got their equaliser in the 34.minute as Yakubu scored of a penalty, after Vincent Pires had handled the ball in the area of a Sujoy Datta shot. It remained even at the breather and after the restart Sporting Clube went in search of the lead, but Marc stood in their way. Churchill needed time to settle down again, but when they did they went ahead through a Yakubu header of a Roque Barreto cross. Sporting Clube intensified their attacks, but striker Chidi and MacPherlin Dudu Omagbemi just could get onto the scoresheet again. Three minutes from time Yakubu completed his hattrick and ensured his club victory when his fierce shot went into the goal off a pass from Ratan Singh.
ONGC Man of the Match Award: Mark Mascarenhas (Churchill).

Note-1: The AIFF president Das Munshi talked to the media yesterday in Calcutta and disclosed a number of things.
The four top football clubs from India and Bangladesh would vie for honours in the newly instated Ganga-Padma Cup. When hosted by India the tournament would be called Ganga Cup, while in Bangladesh it would be called Padma Cup.
On the scheduled tour to Pakistan of the Indian national team, Das Munshi said "We have told the Pakistan soccer authorities that it won't be possible for our side to go in June, as the players would be busy with a tsunami tie. Once the new dates are finalised, we will get back to them".
Asked whether the AIFF would reconsider its decision to demote the four bottom ranked sides of this year's NFL to the second division, Dasmunshi replied in the negative. "The decision has already been taken, and cannot be changed".

Note-2: The Calcutta High Court justice SK Gupta today allowed East Bengal midfielder Dipankar Roy to leave the country for his clubs AFC Cup engagements, if he reports to the court during his stay in Calcutta. Dipankar had been arrested last November for alleged links to the accused murderer hatkata Dilip.

Note-3: The AIFF president during his visit in Manipur visited the family of the deceased former All-Manipur FA secretary Aheibam Borchand Singh, who was also a former player and referee, along with the Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh, AIFF vice-president Atou Mezhaur, Power Minister Phungzathang and the AMFA president A Santosh Kumar.
Das Munshi said he would make the proposal to the executive committee at it's next meeting to organise a football championship in the memory of Borchand Singh. The AIFF president also promised to help the AMFA if it organised any regional-level tournament in the memory Borchand Singh.

Note-4: Assam state champions Assam State Electricity Board SC from Guwahati are preparing their team for the NorthEast qualifiers of the 2.Division National League. And also the club management is on the lookout to strengthen the team before it takes part in the qualifiers. The club is especially on the lookout for two defenders and a midfielder.

8. March
Note-1: After announcing over the weekend that there would be awards for the best referees and coaches in the 9th NFL, today the AIFF made a press release stating that there would be awards for players as well. The restarted Awards are: