NE premier league on the cards
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, September 28 2011:
Aimed at promoting football in the North East region, officials of All India Football Federation (AIFF), AMFA and Manipur State League teams discussed on organising NE Premier League football tournament at Hotel Kristina today.
While the AIFF delegation was led by its vice president Ankur Dutta, Biswas Goswami director of Celebrity Management Group, sponsors of the proposed NE Premier League, was also present at the meeting.
Even though the meeting was a preliminary deliberation on the proposed League, which will also include Sikkim, Ankur informed the gathering that which teams of the NE States will be eligible for competition along with the tournament schedule will be intimated to all concerned as soon as possible.
However, it was decided that at least three foreign players would be allowed to represent a team while it would be mandatory for a team to have no less than six local players and same number of players under 21 years of age.
The rest of the team members may be from other parts of the country.
Decision was also taken at the meeting that all three foreign players will not be fielded in the same game whereas two local players and one under-21 player should figure in a team without fail.
The AIFF vice president further advised all those present at the meeting to begin preparation with the assurance that the Premier League will commence within this season.
Apart from teams of the seven North Eastern States of Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, one team from Sikkim will also feature in the proposed League.