CHENNAI: I-League outfit Chennai City FC announced on Friday that they would be building a new stadium, to be opened by 2019. The announcement was made during a press meet called to unveil a partnership between them and Finnish club JS Hercules.
“The new stadium would be built on a location that we have identified in ECR/OMR and we hope to play in it by the 2019 season. Further details will be revealed at a later date,” club owner Rohit Ramesh said.
Chennai City had faced problems with securing a home ground for the I-League season, having to shell out a fortune for the JN Stadium in the end.
Rohit also revealed that he was comfortable with the proposed changes to the Indian football calendar with both ISL and I-League set to run parallely for five months. “I think it will benefit Indian football,” he said. “20 teams playing together at the same time will be very good for the players.”
As Express had revealed earlier, it was also announced at the function that four Chennai City players — Michael Soosairaj, Nandhakumar, Edwin Vanspaul and A Beautin — will train in Finland with Hercules for a month. Hercules will also assist Chennai City with foreign player recruitment from next season.
Ram Krishnan shares lead
Grandmaster norm-holder Ram S Krishnan of BSNL led the pack with three points after the third round of the St Peter’s school 1st All-India Open FIDE Rated chess tournament held at St Peter’s International School, Golf Club Road, Kodaikanal. Sharing the lead with Ram were 21 players. Top seed Lokesh N, International Master Balasubramaniam and local star Lakshmi Narayanan were some of them.
Results (Round 3): Lokesh N (3) bt Kannan V (2), Gokula Chandhiran A (2) lost to Syed Anwar Shazuli (3), Ram S Krishnan (3) bt Bagat Singh P (2), Swarnamala B (2) lost to Lakshmi Narayanan M V (3), Balasubramaniam R (3) bt Venkatesan A N (2), Abinandhan R (2) lost to Phoobalan P (3), Kaushik G Iyer (3) bt Vijay Anand M (2), Sivakumar C (3) bt Prahalad B (2), Shanmugasundaram G (2) lost to Saranya Y (3), Arputha Jasmine B A (2) lost to Kanishk SK (3).
SRM University win
SRM University defeated Customs Chennai 23-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-23 in a men’s volleyball match at the 49th state-level volleyball tournament for Texmo Cup, held at Coimbatore. In another match, Income Tax Chennai got the better of Aquapump Sports Club 25-20, 25-21, 25-14.
Results: SRM University bt Customs Chennai 23-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-23; Income Tax Chennai bt Aquapump Sports Club 25-20, 25-21, 25-14.