MALAPPURAM: The Kottappady football stadium will play host to the fourth edition of The New Indian Express All-Kerala Inter-collegiate Football Tournament, GOAL 2015, from December 28 to January 11, 2015. An official announcement of the tournament was held here on Saturday in the presence of P Ubaidullah MLA.
The tournament will feature 24 teams representing various colleges in the state. The winning team will get a prize money of `2 lakh and the runner-up, `1 lakh. This is the biggest inter-collegiate tournament in the state in this category, in terms of the prize money. The tournament is being conducted with the approval of the Kerala Football Association (KFA) and has been included in KFA’s calendar. TNIE convened a meeting on Monday at Malappuram to officially launch the tournament. District officials, football association office-bearers and former football player Malappuram Asees attended the meet. They expressed their willingness to join hands with TNIE to promote football in the state.
“Malappuram is the most attractive venue in the state for hosting a football tournament.,” Malappuram Inspector of Police R Asokan said. The football association office-bearers also offered their full support for the success of the tournament. Kerala Football Association treasurer P Ashraf, District Football Association president Abdul Kareem, secretary Mohammed Saleem, municipal Opposition leader Paloli Kunhimohammed, Malappuram SI Manoj Parayatta, Cooperative Hospital secretary Mohammed Hashim and Bhaskaran, in charge of the Kottappady football stadium, shared their suggestions. TNIE Resident Editor Vinod Mathew Jacob, Kochi Bureau Chief Byju Aryad and GOAL 2015 coordinator Raveendran gave details about the tournament.