Elite div football league sans star players from Nov 12

Nagpur

This year the JSW Elite Division Football Tournament, the premier event of Nagpur District Football Association (NDFA), will be played without star players from November 12 at its Suyog Nagar ground.

The reason behind it is the suspension of around 100 players by the NDFA clubs for their participation unauthorised leagues. Addressing media persons NDFA president Haresh Vora said, " We know that number of teams will miss the star players but we had no option but to take strict action to bring discipline among the players."

Interestingly last year's best player of the losing side (Young Muslim Junaid Fahad and one another prominent playr Sorab Akhter will not be seen in action. Apart from them, there are several players who had performed well last year will not there in the team this season.

The action has been taken against the maximum MOIL XI players. Vora said ten teams including Ansar Club, Rabbani Club,Young Muslim Football Club, Nagpur Blues, Rahul Sankritayan, Big Ben, SE Railway (HQ), MOIL XI, and IFC Chankapur will vie for the top honours. Top four teams will qualify for the super league. Vora also informed that this year there would be no relegation.

JSW vice-president and plant head Rajesh Jain, NDFA secretary Iqbal Kashmiri, vice-president Atraman Pande, Salim Baig and others were present at the press conference.

Suspension of senior div players revoked

The NDFA has revoked the suspension of senior division players. Along with elite and super division, senior division players were also suspended for their participation in unauthorised league. However, according to the sources, the decision was taken to benefit one of the prominent Elite division teams which found it difficult to field their full team. Asked about it Vora said, " These are all rumours. We recovered the fine from senior division players and revoked the suspension."

Prize money

Winner: Rs 1,25,000, runners-up: Rs 75,000, man-of-the-tournament: Rs 35,000, man-of-the-final: R 15,000; best player of runners-up team: Rs 7,500, best goalkeeper: Rs 7,500, best defender: Rs 7,500, best coach of winning and runners-up teams: Rs 5,000 each