By Mark Baber
August 20 – The All India Football Federation (AIFF) have announced that Jammu and Kashmir will host the Federation Cup in August 2015, whilst the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) announced the names of the international players who will be playing in the new league.
“Next year’s Federation Cup will be held in Jammu and Kashmir in August,” AIFF general secretary Kushal Das told reporters.
The Federation Cup, established in 1977, is currently the most important club tournament after the I-League and is the de facto league Cup. The winner of the tournament, which is played in neutral venues, gets the chance to play in the AFC Cup.
The current holders, Churchill Brothers, won the trophy in January whilst another edition will be played in December this year following rescheduling due to the delays in the launch of the ISL.
Das confirmed: “There’s no (further) change in the dates of this year’s Federation Cup which will be held from December 28-January 10 in Goa this year.”
Das admitted that the international Nehru Cup, last held in 2012 was unlikely to go ahead as, “frankly speaking, we don’t have sponsors for the Nehru Cup which requires a huge budget. It’s difficult for the Federation to organise this until we get sponsors.
“Earlier ONGC sponsored but with the resources that we have it’s difficult to hold such a big tournament. We’re trying our best.”
On the Indian Super Cup, Das said: “We don’t think there’s much value left for the Super Cup. If the executive committee decides then we may organise again.”
Meanwhile the ISL is pushing ahead with the announcement of the international players who will go into next week’s ‘central player draft pool’ to be held in Mumbai. The player who have agreed their salaries in advance of being assigned to teams are:
Goalkeepers: André Matos Dias Pereira (Portugal); Apoula Edima Edel Bete (Cameroon); Gennaro Bracigliano (France); Jan Šeda (Czech Republic); Marek Čech (Czech Republic).
Defenders: Andrés Felipe González Ramírez (Colombia), Erwin Spitzner (Brazil), Henrique Dinis Oliveira Dias (Portugal), Ilias Pollalis (Greece), Massamba Lô Sambou (Senegal), Raphael Romey (France), Sylvain Monsoreau (France), Tomáš Josl (Czech Republic), Grégory Arnolin (France), Bernard Mendy (France), Pavel Čmovš (Czech Republic), Youness Bengelloun (France), Johann Letzelter (France), Cédric Hengbart (France), Jairo Andrés Suarez Carvajal (Colombia), José Miguel González Rey (Spain).
Midfielders: Park Kwang-Il (South Korea), Bojan Djordjic (Sweden), Bruno Augusto Pelissari de Lima (Brazil), Cristian Hidalgo González (Spain), Edgar Carvalho Figueira Marcelino (Portugal), Francisco Javier Fernández Luque (Spain), Gustavo Marmentini dos Santos (Brazil), Víctor Herrero Forcada (Spain), Jan Štohanzl (Czech Republic), Omar Andres Rodriguez Martinez (Colombia), Saïdou Mady Panandetiguiri (Burkina Faso), Bruno Herrero Arias (Spain), Bruno Filipe Tavares Pinheiro (Portugal), Guilherme Felipe de Castro (Brazil), Pavel Eliáš (Czech Republic), Jakub Podaný (Czech Republic), Jofre Mateu González (Spain), Do Dong-Hyun (South Korea).
Strikers: Michael Chopra (England), Arnal Llibert Conde Carbó (Spain), Diego Fernando Nadaya (Argentina), Eduardo Silva Lerma (Spain), Iain Hume (Canada), Iván Bolado Palacios (Spain), Luis Alfredo Yánes Padilla (Colombia), Miguel Bruno Pereira Herlein (Portugal), Miroslav Slepička (Czech Republic), Pedro Adriano Veloso Gusmão (Brazil).
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