Chirag United Kerala FC will be seen playing Souther Samity and Brazilian top division club Botafogo Football and Regatta SC (BFR) in the group stages of the 116th edition of the IFA Shield, this year sponsored by the Rose Valley Group of Companies. Chirag have been drawn into one of the four groups (B) with three teams each and the winner of each group progressing into the semi finals of the fourth oldest football tournament in the world.
The club has flown to Kolkata with a 22 member squad and will be training at the SAI Grounds in Kolkata under technical director Biswajit Bhattacharya. The club has decided to continue their training at Kolkata even after the IFA Shield citing lack of proper grounds to train at Kochi. The team will only return close to their next I-League match against Shillong Lajong FC at Kochi on March 24, 2012.
Chirag will open against local side Southern Samity on 4th March 2012 and then play the Brazilian side on 9th March, 2012. Both the matches will kick off at 03:00 PM at the Howrah Municipal Corporation Stadium. Other clubs that will feature in the event are Kingfisher East Bengal, Pune FC, Pailan Arrows, Mumbai FC, Shillong Lajong FC, Prayag United SC, Techno Aryan Club, Ar Hima FC and Bhowanipur Club.
The semi finals are scheduled for March 12 and 13 and finals on March 16th at the majestic Yuva Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata. Churhcill Brothers SC lifted the last edition of the tournament defeating Mohun Bagan in the final.
Fixtures – 116th IFA Shield 2011-12
Group A:
March 03, 2012 : Kingfisher East Bengal vs Bhowanipur Club
March 05, 2012 : Bhowanipur Club vs Shillong Lajong FC
March 09, 2012 : Kingfisher East Bengal vs Shillong Lajong FC
Group B:
March 04, 2012 : Chirag United Kerala vs Southern Samity
March 09, 2012 : Botafogo BFR vs Chirag United Kerala
March 11, 2012 : Botafogo BFR vs Southern Samity
Group C:
March 04, 2012 : Pune FC vs Pailan Arrows
March 06, 2012 : Pune FC vs Ar Hima FC
March 10, 2012 : Ar Hima FC vs Pailan Arrows
Group D:
March 05, 2012 : Mumbai FC vs Techno Aryan Club
March 07, 2012 : Prayag United SC vs Mumbai FC
March 10, 2012 : Prayag United SC vs Techno Aryan Club
March 12, 2012 : Semi Final 1
March 13, 2012 : Semi Final 2
March 16, 2012 : Final
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Friday 2 March 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.