Rebello and Fernandes set to Officiate Asian Games

Two Indian women referees have been selected to officiate at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, in September.

Maria Rebello and Uvena Fernandes are the first women referees picked by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to supervise Asian Games matches and they are all too excited about the break they have been given.

"I am overwhelmed, this will be my first match abroad and I'm feeling very excited," Fernandes, who received her FIFA certification badge only this year, told IANS.

"I'm not nervous at all. I have faith in my abilities and I have prepared well, I'm just raring to go," said Fernandes, who for the past five-six years has been officiating Subroto Cup matches.

While Fernandes, 32, is a relative new-bee, her partner Rebello has acquired the knack of keeping grown men in check on the field. Rebello, 42, a former India senior women's national team captain and a regular referee in the Goa pro-league, became the first woman to oversee I-League and Santosh Trophy matches earlier this year.

However, the remarkable journey for the two, who are leaving for Incheon Sep 10, hasn't been easy and both have credited the head of the All India Football Federation's (AIFF) referees department, Gautam Kar, for the boom in the number of women referees.

A look at the FIFA list of women referees shows only two Indians whereas a tiny West African nation like Benin with a population of less than 10 million, has seven. Many other smaller African nations have also produced more women referees. India has a lot a catching up to do, but the two Indian referees feel things are improving.

"The development of women referees in India is in the best hands. What he (Gautam Kar) has done for it cannot be explained in words. He has been instrumental for us becoming refs. The fact that the U-19 women's nationals in Cuttack was manned by all-women referees for the first time goes to show what sort of depth there is in the country," said Rebello.

Fernandes feels that with top-level professional leagues like the Indian Super League (ISL) springing up in the country, it's only a matter of time before more and more Indian referees get to officiate in international matches and tournaments.

"Professional leagues will give opportunities to young referees, both men and women, to hone their skills. Hopefully, with that experience and exposure we hope to get nominated for bigger tournaments around the world," Fernandes said.

AFC Delegates conduct I-League Workshop

The first AIFF Club Licensing Workshop for the 2014/15 Football season successfully took place at the AIFF Headquarters, Football House, New Delhi, on Friday, August 29.

Present on the occasion were officials from AFC (Asian Football Confederation), as well as, representatives from the I-League Clubs including new entrants Kalyani Group, who are to participate in the upcoming season. Mr. Sunando Dhar, CEO, I-League, also graced the occasion.

The objective of the workshop was to give the Clubs an insight into different aspects of the game, both on-and-off the field. The discussions dealt on marketing and promotion of the Clubs, match day activities, operations, roles of support staff and other relevant issues.

Speaking on the success of the workshop, Dhar said: “It is great to see nine out of 11 clubs having the AFC license today. Licensing has definitely got the clubs together.

“Stronger the I-League clubs become, the stronger AIFF becomes. The stronger you (the Clubs) become, the league becomes stronger.”

“Remember, you have to represent India in Asia.”

Mr. Windsor John, Deputy General Secretary, AFC, also Head of Competitions, asserted the importance of the Club Licensing, and mentioned AFC’s commitment to help improve football in India.

“First of all, I congratulate I-League for conducting this workshop,” Mr. John said.

“Club Licensing is a very important feature in the AFC Champions League assignment. The Clubs need to understand that this is not a policing license, but a license to develop.

“Hence, I ask all the clubs to embrace it. India has got tremendous potential. Small steps, a long-term plan, and the right people, can take it a long way.”

Mr. Mahajan Nair, Head of Club Licensing, AFC highlighted club development with special significance on the AFC development program – the Kick Off project.

Furthermore, Mr. Javed Siraj, newly appointed Integrity Officer of the AIFF, stressed on match integrity highlighting on the menace of match fixing and betting.

The event was also used to hand over the AFC Certificates to the nine I-League Clubs (except new entrants Royal Wahingdoh FC and the Kalyani Group-owned team) who successfully fulfilled the Indian Club Licensing criteria for the 2014/15 season.

“Club Licensing is a very good initiative for India. It has done wonders for the game”, said R.A.J Gomes, General Secretary, Salgaocar FC.

Mr. John also conducted an interactive session on match day operations and the role of LGC’s (Local General Coordinators) for matches, where he explained the do’s and don’ts for match days and the responsibilities of the Clubs and the support staff.

AFC Head of Marketing Operations, Mr. Yong-Chul Yun complemented it by speaking on match day promotions.

Defending I-League champions Bengaluru FC were represented by Mr. Dhruv Nagarkatti, who also spoke on match day operations and other promotional activities, via a vivid audio-visual presentation.

McDowell Mohun Bagan, who recorded the highest supporters attendance count for an I-League club last season, appointed Mr. Debashish Dutta, to speak on the attendance of I-League clubs.

Meanwhile, Shillong Lajong FC representatives Mr. Habamutlang Lyngdoh and Mr. Nikhil Sharma spoke about the marketing and promotion of I-League Clubs. They gave an overview of their Club’s brand philosophy and the football scenario in the North-East.

“We want to make sure that talent coming from North-East plays for Shillong Lajong FC,” said Nikhil.

A brief history of the Club, the grassroots development programs, the community building initiatives, the interactions with fans, and other details were touched upon.

Dhar thanked all the AFC delegates, and also informed that there are plans for a workshop on marketing, to be conducted by FIFA, at the end of this year.

“We thank all the AFC officials, as well as all the Clubs, so much for coming here today. We hope to organise these workshops every year.

“AIFF next plans to organise a FIFA workshop in November-December 2014 on marketing.”

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS:

SALGAOCAR FC: R.A.J. Gomes, Adlear D’Cruz, Rahul Rodrigues, Nicholas Falcao

PUNE FC: Dr. B. Ashok Kumar

MUMBAI FC: Atul Badgamia, Prashant Godbole

MOHUN BAGAN: Prince Rufus, Debashish Dutta

ROYAL WAHINGDOH: Dominic Sutnga, Anoop Abraham, Rajas Joshi, Sanjib Das

EAST BENGAL: Arunava Bhattacharya

SPORTING GOA: Victor Fernandes, Edward Noronha

BENGALURU FC: Dhruv Nagarkatti, Premankur Barua

SHILLONG LAJONG: Nikhil Sharma, Habamutlang Lyngdoh

DEMPO SC: Abhijit Patil

KALYANI GROUP: R Ramakrishnan

India U-23 beat Jiangsu Sainty

The Asian Games bound India U-23 National Team started their China Exposure Tour on a high with a convincing 3-0 win over Chinese Super League side Jiangsu Sainty at the Century Park in Shanghai on Friday (August 29, 2014).

Sunil Chhetri, Robin Singh and substitute Alwyn George were on target either side of halftime for the men in blue who prior to this tour drew a Friendly Series against Pakistan 1-1.

One time runners up Jiangsu are currently placed seventh in the Chinese Super League table having garnered 31 points from 21 matches so far. They fielded their second string side in this match.

India started the match brightly winning three corners in the space of the first twenty minutes. But all three takes from Dempo’s Mandar Rao Desai failed to cause enough flutters in opposition ranks.

But that was not to be so for long. A free kick from 25 yards was craftily swerved in at the far post by Sunil with the match only 28 minutes old. Soon after the Captain had another glorious chance to double his lead from the penalty spot after Robin was brought down inside the 18-yard box. But the AIFF Player of the Year's take was saved by keeper.

In between Robin couldn’t quite pull the trigger from a one on one situation also failing to keep the ball on target on the rebound. But the tall Bengaluru FC No 9 made amends on the other side of the half when he leaped highest to powerfully head the ball into the back of the net from Mandar’s perfectly weighed left-wing cross.

In the dying minutes, Mandar was in the thick of things again, this time laying the ball for Dempo man Alwyn who crowned India’s day in office with a delicate back heel poke from close.

India next play another side from the Super League, Shanghai East India on September 6.

INDIA: Amrinder Singh, Pritam Kotal, Sandesh Jhingan, Joyner Lourenco, Narayan Das, Siam Hanghal (Lalrindika Ralte – 89^th), Pronay Halder, Francis Fernandes, Mandar Rao Desai, Sunil Chhetri (captain), Robin Singh (Alwyn George – 70^th).   

Del Piero Joins Indian Super League

Juventus and Italian legend Alessarndro Del Piero has joined Indian Super League and will be playing for Delhi Dynamos. Del Piero confirmed the news on his official twitter account yesterday and will be soon arriving in India.

Del Piero was reportedely in negotiations with Hungarian club Honved FC but instead decided to become the brand ambassador of the inaugural edition of the Indian Super League.

Del Piero who has played over 500 games scoring 208 goalscorer is considered as one of the greatest Italian footballers. He was also part of the 2006 World Cup winning Italian team.

            List of Achievement and Accolades of Del Piero

• Juventus FC All-time leading scorer with 290 goals.
• Eight times Serie A winner.
• UEFA Champions League winner with Juventus.
• FIFA World Cup winner with Italy in 2006.
• Named as one of the 100 greatest players to ever play the game by Pele in FIFA 100 list.
• Twice Italian Footballer of the year in 1998 and 2008.

AIFF Executive Committee Decisions

Indian coach Wim Kovermans contract ending in October will not be renewed as decided in the executive committee meeting, however Wim will be offered the technical director role replacing Rob Baan.

It is said that AIFF were particular unhappy with India's performance under Wim Kovermans as the team has lost to much lower oppositions like Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan recently. The team also failed to qualify for Challenge Cup and retain the SAFF Championship in 2013.

AIFF also decided to appoint two new foreign coaches for the senior team in place of Wim and the U-17 team in order to start preparations for world cup in 2017.

The venue/dates for various upcoming Domestic Tournaments which were also finalized in the Meeting stay as follows:

1) Federation Cup to be held in Goa from December 28 to January 10, 2015.

2) Senior Women’s National Championship to be held in Orissa.

3) Final Round of the Santosh Trophy to be held in Uttarakhand.

AIFF also decided to hold a new U-15 league in order to prepare large pool of players for U-17 World Cup.ISL, I-League, 2nd Division and other academies are set to take part in the league which is set to begin in 2015. U-15 League is set to be as named Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy.

Star Studded Indian Super League Launched

It was evening of stars as Hero Indian Super League was launched in Mumbai this afternoon, Neeta Ambani the IMG Reliance chairperson along with the representatives of the eight franchises set the stage on fire.

AIFF president Praful Patel who was present on the occasion went on to praise organizers IMG Reliance for promoting the game in the country, saying super league will take the game in nation to next level, he also announced that the country was gearing up for the FIFA U-17 World Cup which is slated to be hosted in 2017.

After all the representatives finished giving a brief on Indian Super League and their respective teams the official logo of the tournament was finally unveiled.

Hero Indian Super League official website was also up and running following the launch. Here's the link - http://www.indiansuperleague.com/

Present on the occasion were Sachin Tendulkar(Kerala Blasters), Abhishek Bachan(Team Chennai), John Abhram(Northeast United), Ranbir Kapoor(Mumbai City) and Varun Dhawan(FC Goa). Salman Khan(FC Pune) and Saurav Ganguly(Athletico De Kolkata) were the only celebrities who were missing out citing personal reasons.

 

Indian Super League is set to kick-off on this October 10th, a total of 8 teams from different cities will play each other in Home & Away format with top four making it to the two legged semi-finals.

Asian Champions League and Cup Results

The semi-final line-ups of both AFC Cup and ACL was decided this week with some surprising and exciting results throughout the continent.

AFC Champions League

A-League's new hope Western Sydney Wanderers knocked-out holders Guangzhou Evergrande when Tomi Juric converted from spot in 58th min giving an away goal advantage, defending champions scored two more goals later on in the match but was not enough to see them through.

FC Seoul and Pohang Steelers played out another goalless draw taking the match to penalties where FC Seoul won 3-0 after all three Pohang players missed their kicks.

Meanwhile in west Asia AL-Ain of UAE trashed AL-Ittihad of Saudi Arabia 3-1 and it was the tournament top scorer Asamoah Gyan scoring his 12th goal as Al-Ain won 5-1 in aggregate. The other Saudi Arabian club AL-Hilal managed to qualify for the semi-final as they managed to hold Al-Sadd of Qatar to 0-0 winning the tie 1-0 in aggregate.

Results -

AL-Hilal(Saudi Arabia) 1-0(1-0,0-0)  AL-Sadd(Qatar)
AL-Ain(UAE) 5-1(2-0,3-1) AL-Itthiad(Saudi)
Pohang Steelers(South Korea) 0-0(0-0,0-0/0-3P) FC Seoul(South Korea)
Western Sydney Wanderers(Australia) a2-2(1-0,1-2) Guangzhou Evergrande FC(China)

AFC Cup

Defending Champions Kuwait FC were humiliated by Indonesian champions Persipura Jayapura when they were thrashed 6-1 and lost 8-4 in aggregate, Brazilian Robertino Puligara was the star as he scored an hatrick for the Indonesians.

Hong Kong's Kitchee SC lost 1-0 to Vissai Ninh Binh but still made it to the semi-finals thanks to the first leg match where they thrashed the opponent 4-2. The other Vietnamese representative Ha Noi T&T also failed to progress loosing 2-0 and 3-0 on aggregate to Iraqi side Erbil.

Last encounter between two West Asian sides Qadsia and Hadid was 2-2 and 3-3 draw on aggregate but Kuwaiti side Qadasia edged out on 2 precious away goals.

Results -

Ha Noi T&T(Vietnam) 0-3(0-1,0-2) Erbil(Iraq)
Vissai Ninh Binh(Vietnam) 3-4(2-4,1-0) Kitchee SC(Hong Kong)
AL-Qadisia(Kuwait) a3-3(1-1,2-2) Al-Hadid(Bahrain)
Kuwait SC(Kuwait) 4-8(3-2,1-6) Persipura Jayapura(Indonesia)

Indian Super League to be Launched

The much awaited wait for the Indian Super League finally comes to end, as it is expected to be launched today evening. All the owners of eight teams are expected to be present tonight including the mysterious Chennai team owners who are said to be Bollywood star Abhishek Bachan and Bengaluru based firm Playon Skills.

Chennai was only recently added to the league after Sun Group who earlier bid for Bengaluru dropped out after failing to reach an agreement with league organizers IMG-Reliance over the team ownership. Italian giants Inter Milan of Serie A are expected to provide technical expertise to Chennai team.

Teams

Atletico De Kolkata
Delhi Dynamos
Kerala Blasters
Mumbai City FC
Northeast United FC
FC Pune City
FC Goa
Team Chennai

Indian Super League launch will be live on news channel CNN-IBN from 3:30 pm IST.

Manchester United thrashed 4-0 by MK Dons

New Manchester United boss Louis Van Gaal was left scratching his head as English 3rd tier club MK Dons thrashed them 4-0 in the 2nd round of League Cup.

Van Gaal decided to play a second string team but were well beaten as two goals apiece from Will Grigg and Benik Afobe guided MK Dons to a historic win.

Manchester United may have made all the headlines for signing Angel Di Maria for British record transfer fees but they are yet to open their account under Loius Van Gaal after playing three matches till date.

Highlights from the game

FC GOA Launched

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan lighted up the evening as Goa's premier club FC GOA which will participate in inaugural Indian Super League was launched on Tuesday. 

The franchise also unveiled its logo which has the Indian gaur -- Goa's state animal -- standing out fiercely to protect its turf. But what made FC Goa stand out from the rest of the franchisees was the launch of a satellite television channel -- FC Goa TV -- the first by any Indian club. The channel will be telecast on Videocon D2H with exclusive and innovative programming.

The club chairmen Srinivas Dempo also handed over Rs 10,000 cash prize and season ticket pass to winner Welviro Pinto who was amongst the 1200 people who had given their entries for name suggestion. 

"We wanted a name with a strong Goa connect. We wanted a more serious name, too, and FC Goa fitted the bill perfectly. If you look at some of the best clubs in the world, they all have FC associated with it," said Shrinivas Dempo, pointing at the likes of FC Barcelona and FC Porto, the best clubs in Spain and Portugal respectively.

FC GOA Squad

Kalyani Group to be part of I-League

The 2014-15 edition of the I-League, the country’s elite football league, will be an 11-team affair after Kalyani Group bagged the Pune franchise rights, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) announced on Monday.

The AIFF bid evaluation committee accepted Pune-based Kalyani Group’s proposal to participate in the I-League. meanwhile Rendezvous Sports bid for the Hyderabad franchise was rejected for not guaranteeing the financial bank balance.  

“The Kalyani group is excited about the opportunity provided by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to participate in I-League. The group’s football club from Pune will be a ‘People’s club’ that will give a much needed boost to the sport and will take it to the next level in India and also promote it at the grassroots level,” the group said in a statement.

“Sports like football is much needed for the people of Pune and will connect youth at the grass root level through various youth development programs. This initiative will also give people of Pune access to world class sports infrastructure and facilities. The Kalyani Group has always supported various sports initiatives such as tennis…The group will continue to significantly contribute to the development of these young sports talent,” the statement added.

With Pune FC already struggling to get any kind of fans to the stadium the decision to award another I-League team has brought lot of criticism from around the corner. Kalyani group will have a tough time finding decent attendance and may not be able to achieve what Bengaluru FC have done.

Indian Olympic team to play Chinese Super League Teams

Asian Games bound Indian Olympic Team is set to play two tough outings in China in coming days. Wim and team will be determined to dish out a better performance after recent disappointments against Pakistan in friendlies where the team tied the series 1-1, winning 1-0 in first and then losing 0-2. 

They next face Shangai Dongya FC and Jiangsu Sainty FC. So lets look at both the opponents close-up.

Shangai Dongya FC

Founded in 2005 the team has only recently qualified for the top tier Chinese Super League in 2013 season where they finished in 13th position. The club is known as Manchester United of China due chairmen's policy investing money in youth development.

Currently after 22 matches in the 2014 season team stands in 4th position with Swedish International Tobias Hysen and local boy Wu Lei scoring 25 goals between them.

The team currently has 5 foreign players and few Chinese internationals in its rooster. Swedish International Tobias Hysen, Imad Khalili and Chinese International Wu Lei are their key players.

Jiangsu Sainty FC

Founded in 1958 Jiangsu is one of the most established sides in the super league, although being the founding memeber of the first Chinese professional league in 1998 they have never won the title till date, their best ever performance came in 2011 season when they finished 4th.

Currently in 2014 season after 22 matches they lie in 7th position with 31 points to their kitty.

Lebanese International Roda Antar who has experience of playing in German Budesliga is the key player in Jiangsu side apart from him the Chinese side has as many as seven Chinese national team players most notably Liu Janye and Sun Ke.

 What to expect from the matches 

Unlike Indian I-league the Chinese Super League begins in March and ends in November which means that both the teams are in middle of the season so the friendly matches against India olympic team should be secondary to them. Both the teams are likely to field reserve players against India.

Chinese teams are known to be very physically built and play a more direct style of game which will be a difficult test for Wim Kovermans & team, but definately is a good exposure before the Asiad Games next month where they will face-off UAE and Jordan.