IFA Trades Cup
Somnath_Sengupta
3 Points
This is the traditional curtain raiser in Kolkata football. Pretty old tournament too, started in late 19th century. These days teams from 2nd division KFL mostly take part but the tournament generates decent amount of interest in suburbs.
29 teams took part and were divided into 4 groups. Janbazar, defending champions, lost in semi-final to Howrah Union. Other semi-final will see Eastern Railways play FCI. Final is this Sunday.
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29 teams took part and were divided into 4 groups. Janbazar, defending champions, lost in semi-final to Howrah Union. Other semi-final will see Eastern Railways play FCI. Final is this Sunday.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.kolkatafootball.com/trades_cup_2011/index.html">http://www.kolkatafootball.com/trades_c ... index.html</a><!-- m -->
Comments
Trades Cup Submerged in Shame
It is the oldest tournament in the country, yet the IFA officials literally treated it as child's play.
This tournament had been started by the British in Kolkata in 1889. Although there was a lot of hue and cry when Mohun Bagan lifted the IFA Shield in 1911, teams like Sovabazar and Mohun Bagan were competing with and defeating British teams in this tournament much before that. Though the tournament had ceased to operate for many years, the IFA had restarted it in 2006. The tournament usually takes place very perfunctorily with first division clubs. In this year, things were even worse. Play did not take place in an enclosed ground but in the open field in the Maidan. Many teams had enlisted non-registered footballers. Things came to a head in the final on Friday evening.
The Dalhousie vs Howrah Union match was supposed to start at the Mohammedan ground at 3:30 p.m. but there was no marking in the football pitch. The two teams and the referee spent almost an hour standing on the ground. No IFA official was present there. After the marking was made with lime, the match started at 4:30. The match was made into a sixty minutes affair instead of ninety minutes. Dalhouse defeated Howrah 2-1. Abhishek Das and Aftab Alam scored two goals for the winning team. Sonu Modak scored for Howrah. By winning the first Trades Cup in 1889, Dalhousie had filled Kolkata with a wave of celebration. 130 years later, the same tournament has disgraced the whole of Kolkata football.
http://www.kolkatafootball.com/ifa_trades_cup_2018/fixture.html
Some pics of this year's final, though no trophy
http://www.kolkatafootball.com/ifa_cfl_lower_divn_2019-20/trades_2019.html#trades_21st