DDL Sports Bhagath Cup All India Football: Golden Threads in last four

Golden Threads FC, a club formed just five years ago in Ernakulam, upset former Southern giant Indian Bank, Chennai, by a lone goal and entered the semifinal of the DDL Sports Bhagath Cup All India football tournament at the Maharaja’s Stadium

Mohammed Harris scored the match-winner off a corner kick in the 52nd minute.

After it failed to meet the eligibility conditions for playing in the I-League, the Indian Bank team has been beset with problems.

“We lost almost all our player to other clubs,” said Sabir Pasha, the Chennai team’s former international. “Apart from two players, the entire team is new. All are juniors. We just brought them here so that they could gain some experience.”

Indian Bank could not bring its two Nigerian players too. “They have landed in Chennai but they are waiting for their international transfer certificate,” said Pasha.

The match was played under insufficient lights and on an uneven ground.

Holding the ball for long was a problem. “For us, mostly it was a case of hit and run football,” said Pasha, who played alongside some of the giants of Indian football like I.M. Vijayan and Jo Paul Ancheri more than a decade ago.

The organisers have decided to install more light towers and brighter bulbs on Monday. Former Indian captain I.M. Vijayan inaugurated the tournament in a function presided over by Dominic Presentation, MLA. Clive Martel, the Partner of DDL Sports, and the tournament’s General Convener V.P. Chandran spoke at the function.

The Hindu

From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Monday 1 February 2010, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.