Ramanuj Gupta Memorial prize money Super Division football tournament got under way in Silchar’s District Sports Association ground on Wednesday evening.
Played amongst top seven elite teams out of a pool of eight as PWD has abstained from fielding any team from this year round, would culminate with the final to be played on October 1 this year.
The match was kicked off between Arunachal Sanskritik Sangstha, the champion of the super division held last year and current year’s first division champion Itkhola Sporting Club. The champion team would walk away with prize money of Rs 20,000 and a trophy while the runners up would get Rs 10,000 and a trophy in their kitty.
The special change made this year is that in every match the teams would get a match fee which is a first for football tourneys in Silchar. The winning team in each match would get Rs 2500 and the losers Rs 1000, while, a draw would fetch each team, Rs 1500 each.
President of Ramanuj Gupta Trust Rudra Narayan Gupta speaking to Northeast Now said, “My elder brother late Ramanuj Gupta has been an ardent lover of sports. He has played in this ground. To keep his memories alive the tournament was started by my father Late Dr Rahul Gupta. I am now trying my level best to take this global sport of football forward. Our intent is to reach out to schools and college for our goal is to harness local talent to take to this sport. We have tied up with DSA Silchar in this respect for more than six years now, and hope to do more in the future.”
DSA Football Secretary Bikash Das said, “A talent hunt is on as we have segregated Cachar district into four zones. In all likelihood we would start to train this pool of young players by December this year. Let us see how this super division football tournament spans out for we are hopeful to have more polished and skillful players at the end of this tourney.”