Kick off: Glorious 4th year

Kick Off, the weekly football TV show which is aired every Sunday in Kannur Citi Channel will complete 3 successful years today.

Started on 4th June 2006 in Kannur, the land of sports lovers, Kick Off tele serial has helped football to regain its lost interest in last few years.

Sreedeep Purushothaman is the lone man behind this series. A footballer himself playing for 2nd division club Cannannore Sports Academy (run by ex Kerala Police goalkeeper TC Vinod), Sreedeep is also an avid football fan. He is keen on sporting a football Jersey while at work.

Kick Off covers almost all the 11's football tournaments. When asked about the 7's he said there were lot of issues when the players who are signed with other clubs asks him not to show them.

He firmly believes that football in Kannur is now slowly started to recapture the old years and we quote " In 2006 when we started, people used to tell me that this is not going to do any good for the football. It was the time when footballing in Kannur was at the lowest. Now there are more tournament and more people coming to watch the matches."

On the success of Kick Off he says "We have started to cover all sporting events after the world cup 2006. My friends helped in shooting, in getting sponsors, and other activities. We have interviewed foreign players from Nigeria, Brazil, Argentina, Iran who have visited Kannur for the Nayanar Gold cup football tournament 2007 & 2008. Recently we got an award from Football Friend Free Coaching Center, Kannur which is famous for giving free training to students for the last 13years... believe it... FFFCC yesterday celebrated 31st year in soccer training"

Kick Off was featured in Deshabhimani daily last year on the day before Nayanar Cup final and they had titled the article "Kick Off ready now final can begin". Kick Off was also featured by Hindu in 2006. Sreedeep believes this is a great recognition for his program

Looking forward Sreedeep hopes to Make Kick Off a program for the whole of Kerala. He also dreams of a 3CCD camera which would give him the quality to take the programs to the major TV channels

On the occasion of completing 3rd anniversary on behalf of all football fans in Kerala FootballKerala.com salutes Kick Off for their outstanding efforts to deliver quality football programs to us.

From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Thursday 4 June 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.