Southern states in Santosh Trophy finals
Year Winner Runner-up
1946–47 Mysore Bengal
1949–50 Bengal Hyderabad
1950–51 Bengal Hyderabad
1952–53 Mysore Bengal
1953–54 Bengal Mysore
1955–56 Bengal Mysore
1956–57 Hyderabad Bombay
1957–58 Hyderabad Bombay
1962–63 Bengal Mysore
1963–64 Maharashtra Andhra Pradesh
1965–66 Andhra Pradesh Bengal
1967–68 Mysore Bengal
1968–69 Mysore Bengal
1970–71 Punjab Mysore
1972–73 Bengal Tamil Nadu
1973–74 Kerala Railways
1975–76 Bengal Karnataka
1987–88 Punjab Kerala
1988–89 Bengal Kerala
1989–90 Goa Kerala
1990–91 Maharashtra Kerala
1991–92 Kerala Goa
1992–93 Kerala Maharashtra
1993–94 Bengal Kerala
1999–00 Maharashtra Kerala
2000–01 Kerala Goa
2001–02 No competition
2002–03 Manipur Kerala
2003–04 Kerala Punjab
The decline
Kerala last won the Santosh Trophy beating Punjab 3-2 in the final in 2004 at Delhi under Sylvester Ignasius. Since then its fortunes have plunged like at no other time.
In the past four years, Kerala has slipped agonisingly down the totem pole, one step at a time, starting with the Kochi edition in 2006, when the team stumbled in the semifinals in its attempt to retain the crown.
In 2007, the team lost in the quarterfinals at Gurgaon. The last two seasons, the team was knocked out in the pre-quarterfinals at Srinagar (2008) and Coimbatore (2009).
The scene is even more depressing in the I-League. Viva Kerala, the only team to have qualified for the top-division football event in the country, is currently stuck at the bottom of the ladder. In its first jab at the I-League a couple of years ago, Viva Kerala had been demoted to the second division. It is to the club’s credit that it has managed to get back into the I-League despite struggling financially. The ripples created by a star-studded FC Kochin side in the early years, when the competition was known as the National Football League, receded all too quickly for comfort. State Bank of Travancore also failed to establish itself and moved out of the picture in 2000.
Things have come to such a head that the national team has just one player — NP Pradeep, who plays for Mahindra United — from the state. At the centre of all criticism is an inert Kerala Football Association (KFA), which has singularly failed to maintain the standards.
One of the primary reasons for the alarming decline of football in the state is lack of infrastructure. The KFA does not own a stadium and has been unable to find means and methods to implement various programmes the All India Football Association has been offering with assistance from the FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The state association is still sitting over a proposal from FIFA to begin a world-class academy and also to lay an artificial turf.
The reason given for the delay in starting is the non-availability of land. “We have requested the government to provide us land,” says KFA secretary K P Sunny. “We can implement both projects once we acquire the area.”
However, the Kerala State Sports Council (KSCC), maintains it is the KFA’s duty to identify suitable land and the government can handle the rest. To the KSSC’s credit, it has competently organised the AFC’s Vision India Project in the state with little help from the KFA.
The KFA is yet to pay heed to the AFC’s call to reorganise the administrative set-up. The Asian body wants the state association to appoint a paid secretary for greater accountability and development officers with sound knowledge of the game to monitor the project. The KFA is also supposed to disband the inter-district tournament for a state-level league for clubs on the lines of the I-League. Kerala has also lagged in conducting U-13 tournaments. Quality coaches have also been hard to come by. But with a host of former players, including IM Vijayan, Jo Paul Anchery and Firoz Sherief who completed the AFC’s ‘B’ certificate course recently, things could change for the better.
The cupboard is bare in terms of genuine talent with the honourable exception of Viva Kerala captain MP Sakeer, who has been superb in the team’s home matches. Both the state team and club sides have found quality strikers elusive. KSEB’s PK Anil Kumar, who helped Salgaocar qualify for the I-League last season, has looked the only one with the skill to go far.
The glory days
At the height of its glory, Kerala supplied the brightest football talent to the national team.
Right from the late T Abdul Rehman, part of the Indian team that played the semifinals in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, numerous talented players have made their way through the football-crazy state to don the national colours. And three of them — the towering defensive pillar VP Sathyan, the canny and creative IM Vijayan and the irrepressibly versatile Joe Paul Anchery — proved to be inspirational captains too during the golden period for Kerala football, from the late eighties to the turn of the millennium.
One of the most memorable Nehru Cup outings, when strong African and European teams were in the fray, came way back in 1993 under the late Sathyan. India was unlucky not to make the semifinals after holding Finland and Cameroon to draws. In the second leg against the African powerhouse, which had as many as six players from the team that reached the quarterfinals of Italia 1990, India led 2-0 before Cameroon clawed its way back to finish 2-2. Players such as Vijayan, Sathyan, Anchery, CV Pappachan, U Sharaf Ali, Jiju Jacob, KV Dhanesh and M Suresh were prominent fixtures in the Indian team.
In the domestic scene, Kerala was the most feared team in the national championship, the Santosh Trophy, which the state first won in 1973 under TKS Mani. The ‘Red Army’ made the final of the prestigious tournament — the symbol of national supremacy, before the National Football League came along — seven times in a row from 1987 to 1993, winning the Santosh Trophy in 1991 and 1992. Another strong spell of four consecutive final appearances came between 1999 and 2004. Kerala emerged triumphant twice, in 1999 and 2004.
The most important tournament for clubs, the Federation Cup, came to roost in Kerala for two straight years in 1990 and 1991 through the Kerala Police with Sathyan, Vijayan, Pappachan and Sharaf Ali playing a significant part. The gifted Vijayan reigned over Indian football in the nineties, winning the Player of the Year award in 1992, 1997 and 1999. He was also deservedly named the Player of the Decade.
New efforts
With standards plummeting, it has dawned that ‘catch them young’ is indeed the right way to go. The past couple of years have seen sincere efforts to harness talent from the grassroots. The footballing hotbeds of Kozhikode, Malappuram, Ernakulam and Thrissur have shown the way with successful academies for school children.
The Sports Education and Promotion Trust and the Universal Soccer School, both based in Kozhikode, and the RSC Football Academy, Kochi have proved there is interest waiting to be tapped among the new generation. New professional clubs such as Malabar United, Josco FC and Golden Threads in Kochi and Chandni FC in Kozhikode have enlarged the scope of competition.
However, the biggest ray of hope has been the Vision India-Kerala Project initiated by the Asian Football Confederation under its Vision Asia concept to develop the game in the state. The inaugural edition was successfully completed last year with 2,240 school children being trained in seven districts. This year, the project has been extended to all 14 districts.
However, a question mark hangs over the project with the AFC crying foul over the unwillingness of the KFA to revamp the structure of KFA. The Asian body, though full of appreciation for the schools’ league, has threatened to withdraw support for the project if the state association does not follow the norms.
Another praiseworthy attempt is the launch of the Cochin Premier League (CPL), the first league tournament in the state where local talent can rub shoulders with foreign players. The government, too, has stated that departmental teams such as Kerala Police, SBT, KSRTC, KSEB and Travancore Titanium would be refurbished with new recruitments.
There were also moves to revive defunct competitions such as Sait Nagjee, Chakola and the GV Raja tournament and also to start new events as per the recommendations of the committee set up by the Sports Ministry after the debacle in the last Santosh Trophy. However, so far, concrete steps have not been initiated to put words into action.
krishnakumarkh@expressbuzz.com