2018 Calcutta Football League Premier Division
thebeautifulgame
Durgapur,India30601 Points
The Calcutta Football
League (Premier Division-A Group), one of the oldest and most prestigious
leagues in India, kicks off on 3rd August. A total of 12 teams—East Bengal, Mohun Bagan, Mohammedan Sporting, Tollygunge Agragami, Aryan, George Telegraph, Pathachakra, Rainbow AC, Peerless, Calcutta Customs, West Bengal Police and F.C.I—will be
taking part in the competition.
The Red and Golds, the defending champions, have won the title eight times on the trot and will be looking to extend their domination. Fortified by the financial muscle of their new investor, Quess, they have pulled off a coup by signing Costa Rican World Cupper Johnny Acosta. The two other foreigners are experienced campaigner Mahmoud Al Amnah and I-League winning Senegalese midfielder Kasim Aidara. Their arch-rivals, Mohun Bagan who have not won the League since 2009, will be desperate to end their drought this time around. They will be banking heavily on their strikers, Henry Kisseka who had been prolific with Gokulam Kerala in Last year’s I-league and Dipanda Dicka, last I-League’s top scorer. Eze Kingsley will be helming the defence while the midfield would be manned by the likes of Mehtab Hossain, Shilton D’Silva and Abinash Ruidas. The so-called small teams, especially Mohammedan Sporting, Pathachakra and Rainbow AC among others, have also managed to garner an impressive array of talents and are expected to give the Big Two a run for their money. The much awaited Derby—the clash between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan—will take place on 2nd September, while the “mini-derbies” will take place on 9th and 16th September.
The official sponsor of this year’s CFL will be Sadhna News Bangla. A minimum of 36 matches will be telecast, with all the matches of the Big Three to be shown live on TV. The official timings of the matches are 4:30 p.m and 2:35 p.m. The winners will receive prize money of 50 lakhs, while the runners up would get 25 lakhs.
So let the discussions begin!
Comments
Dipanda Dicka, Abhishek Ambekar and Azharuddin Mallick scored for Mohun Bagan, while Abhijit Sarkar and Joel Sunday scored for Rainbow
Anto Pejic scored both the goals for Pathachakra