Action from the current Kerala State junior soccer championship in Kochi.| Photo Credit: Special association

Over the final couple of weeks, the Kerala Football Association has been organising its sub-junior and junior State inter-district championships in a league-cum-knockout format giving gamers ample publicity.

Surprisingly, the State senior males’s inter-district championship — which begins on the Kottapadi Stadium in Malappuram on Saturday (Sept. 2-9) — can be a knockout affair. The championship is a range occasion to select the Kerala workforce for the Santosh Trophy’s preliminary section in October. But practically half of the State’s 14 groups will bow out after enjoying only one match which isn't probably to present the selectors a lot time to have a correct have a look at them.

However P. Anilkumar, the final secretary of the Kerala Football Association, defined that there have been a number of causes for this.

“We have more matches with reduced match timings of about 60 to 70 minutes in the sub-junior and junior State championships to give the selectors more time to understand the quality of players. But for seniors, we have to stick to 90-minute matches,” mentioned Anilkumar, in a chat with The Hindu, on Thursday.

“It will be an expensive affair because senior players will need to have at least 24 hours rest after every match and if we have a league-cum-knockout event that will increase the duration of the tournament.

More expensive

“Now, we have it for nine days (knockout format) but with a league-cum-knockout format, it will go up to 20 or 25 days and the accommodation and other costs will be triple of what we will be having now.

“In future, we may be able to make the seniors also into a league-cum-knockout event which we are unable to do now because of budgetary constraints.”

Other choices

Anilkumar additionally identified that the selectors produce other occasions to watch the seniors.

“In the senior level, we are also taking from the clubs because we are watching their matches in the Kerala Premier League and the KPL qualifiers,” he mentioned.

“But the age-group players don’t have such exposure...that is why we had decided to make it a league-cum-knockout for juniors and sub-juniors so that they will get some two to three matches. And the selectors will also have time to spot the best players.”