Bordoloi Trophy

Bordoloi Trophy from Nov. 8

The 56th edition of Bharat Ratna Gopinath Bordoloi Trophy Football Tournament will be held at the Nehru Stadium in Guwahati from November 8 to 24 with 18 teams vying for top honours.

This year the GSA has been celebrating its golden jubilee year and its officials are planning to hold the tournament in a befitting manner.

SAISC and Green Valley Club will play in the inaugural match on Nov 8.

Two foreign teams -- Port Authority of Thailand, Bangkok, and Abahani Limited -- besides Vasco Club of Goa; ONGC, Mumbai; and other major teams of the Northeast -- ASEBSC, Oil India, Duliajan; Shillong XI; Nagaland Police; Assam Regimental Centre (ARC); AP Blues; ASRF – have confirmed participation.

Mohammedan Sporting of Kolkata and Tata Football Academy have withdrawn from the tournament.

The organisers are planning to hold the tournament under flood lights from the quarter-final stage. Two semi-finals are slated for November 21 and 22 while the final would be held on November 24.

The budget of the tournament is pegged at Rs 37 lakh out of which GSA is expecting Rs 25 lakhs from sponsorship.

Corporate houses like IOCL, ONGC, OIL, HPC, NRL, BRPL, SBI have assured to offer financial assistance to GSA.

The organizers are hoping to collect Rs 10 lakh from tickets.

The price of the tickets upto the quarter-final stage would be Rs 5 for open galleries and Rs 20 for covered galleries. There would also be season ticket costing Rs 500.

On the opening ceremony, GSA will honour eminent sports personalities including Ananda Laskar (for football), Badal Thakur (for cricket), Tayabun Nissa (for athletics ), Binoy Medhi (for volleyball), Mukut Medhi (for basketball ), Dipankar Bhattacherjee (for badminton), Bijoy Hazarika (for table tennis), Ranjit Singh (for hockey), Zakir Ahmed (sports organizer), Dipu Choudhury (veteran commentator), Tarani Barman ( photo journalist), Pulin Das ( veteran sports journalist) and Nripendra Narayan Singha (veteran referee).

Oil giant Indian Oil Corporation Limited has come forward to become co-sponsor of the tournament and has handed GSA a check of Rs five lakh.

The IOC said it will revive the ‘Best Player of the NE’ in the Bordoloi Trophy.