Soccer lovers in the Calicut city have something to look forward to; with the installation of floodlights at the Corporation Stadium here, the stage is set for I-League games, apart from a few exhibition matches.
However, the fact that the city still does not have a stadium solely dedicated to the game - the Corporation Stadium is more often a venue for cultural carnivals than football - rankles. "There is no other place in the city to organise public functions, especially cultural events that need to accomodate more than 3000 people other than the stadium," says Mayor M Bhaskaran. Take example when about a lakh people were present in the stadium to see the Academy Award winner AR RAhman live! District Football Association secretary P Haridas pointed out that the ground, after functions, would be littered with the plastic waste and glass pieces, apart from the pits dug for erecting poles.
"With the desicion to hold the games, the association, with the Corporation's help has to restore the fround to a playable condition," he said. "We may be able to remove the weeds and level the ground befor October 23 (date scheduled for Viva Kerala's forst home match). But it may take more days to grow fresh grass on the ground," he added.
Source: Express News Service, Kozhikode.
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Tuesday 6 October 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.