KOCHI: The pilot run of College Sports League Kerala (CSL-K) concluded last month with Mar Athanasius Football Academy crowned winner of the first title.
An initiative of the state government’s directorate of sports and youth affairs and the Sports Kerala Foundation to hold league-format games across different sports, CSL-K kicked off with the football tournament at Calicut University.
Fourteen college football clubs from across all universities took part in the competition.
The four teams that topped the group stages competed in the ‘super league’ with the top two teams meeting in the final.
According to coaches and players the league was well organised. For Vipin Vidhu, captain of Mar Athanasius, the event was one of the best experiences in college football.
“The league was conducted smoothly in terms of organisation and the facilities were great. The players got enough and more playing time, which itself was great exposure for us,” he said.
“A league-format competition is necessary for the growth of players. It helps us best analyse the talent and quality of individual players,” said Harry Benny, coach of Mar Athanasius.
“More matches and more playtime will also help scouts identify new talents,” he said. Advertisement The staging of matches in August, the peak of monsoon in Kerala, was the only inconvenience that participants pointed out.
“The weather was not very ideal for matches. We very often faced waterlogging on the ground and several matches were delayed due to rains,” said Sreekanth S K, coach of Maharaja’s Strikers.
“Despite that drawback, the tournament was well organised and the concept will help develop collegiate-level football in the state,” he added. According to the director of sports and youth affairs, P Vishnuraj, it’s still too soon to measure the success of the league.
“A league will take two to three years to establish itself. The first version, that was carefully curated by organisers without compromising the quality of games, has had a successful run,” he said.
“We will seriously take into consideration the weather aspect as pointed out by many and the functioning of sports councils in colleges and other factors like developing fan bases and attracting sponsors requires more time” he said.
The inaugural volleyball competition of CSL-K is also set to happen this year.
“The games were originally planned to be conducted on MG University campus this month. The finalised dates will be announced later,” Vishnuraj added.
From next year, officials plan to conduct CSL-K’s football event in a 3-tier format: A district-level league that will have 168 matches featuring top teams from 14 districts, zonal-level league with 48 matches involving district champions and wildcard entries, and state-level league with knockout rounds leading to the grand finale that will decide the champions.
The above story is reported by Manisha V C S of The New Indian Express