Chief Minister vows to help Kerala football

Kerala’s Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has agreed to provide five acres of land for setting up a football academy in Kochi if the Kerala Football Association (KFA) takes all possible measures to promote the game in Kerala. Chandy who was speaking on the occasion of the valedictory function of ‘Goal 2012′, an inter-collegiate football tournament organised by the New Indian Express, also promised a bright future for football in Kerala.

The Chief Minister said that his government had planned of providing the land during their last tenure in 2006, but the plan didn’t materialize because of certain reasons. “But now the government is ready to implement the decision if KFA comes forward with the demand,” he said crowing Sree Kerala Varma College, Thrissur as the champions of the tournament.

Vayalar Ravi, the Union Minister for Overseas Indian Affair and a founder member of I-League second division club Eagles FC in 1955 recollected the glorious past of Kerala football. Ravi demanded that the football culture in Kerala must be revived. KV Thomas, Union Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution, said that the golden days of football will return in the coming days.

Prabhu Chawla, the Editorial Director of the New Indian Express that organised the event said, “The New Indian Express is dedicated to revive football in Kerala. We are ready to go to even the panchayat level in the pursuit. Our only request to the authorities is to provide us with suitable football grounds to conduct the tournament.: He said that the tournament will be back bigger and better in the next year.

Sree Kerala Varma College defeated MA College, Kothamangalam in the finals of the inter-collegiate tournament. The winners were given a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh, while the runner up bagged Rs. 50,000. Individual awards were given away to KK Bharathan (best player), Faizal Rahman (top scorer), Ramesh NR (best goal keeper), Mustafa Arafath (best defender), Vibin SJ (best midfielder) and Eldhos Sunny (best forward).

Former legends of Kerala football like Olympian O Chandrasekharan, internationals C C Jacob, M M Jacob and Xavier Pius, Santhosh Trophy stars T K S Mani, K P Williams and T A Jaffar and senior coach Rufus D’Souza were also honoured during the function.

From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Sunday 12 February 2012. The database copy of this article was lost; it was recovered in 2026 from the Internet Archive's saved copy of the live page.