What: CC&FC five-a-side Invitational Football Tournament for The Telegraph Cup, presented by Imperial Blue in association with Canon.

Maidan great Jamshid Nassiri’s (in red) team Selvel walked all over opponents Birla Tyres with a 10-0 win. “Considering the competition we had today, it wasn’t a bad show. I don’t merely think, I am sure we will win the tournament,” said Selvel captain Bradley Williams.	Ankita Banik (in picture) had some tips for cousin Soumitra Das of Wipro GE Healthcare before he took on Medica Hospital in the last match of Sunday evening.	Friends Varun Sukul and Hina Valechha cheered Citibank, who lost the match 0-1 to The Telegraph Team A.
Aritra Gupta, 6 (left), and Ayush Haldar, 5, of Frank Anthony Public School were playing their own match while their dads cheered Team Nexval Infotech. “I have scored 1,000 goals till now,” Aritra declared.	Assam Tea Brokers put up a tough fight but lost to Cognizant Technology Solutions (in light green). “It always feels good to win, but this time it was better as we won 4-1,” smiled Ashish Sarkar of Cognizant.	The heated match between Nexval Infotech and Idea Cellular (in white and green) ended in a draw as both teams failed to open their account. “We played well. I hope we make it till at least the semis this year,” said Faizi Shahidi, the captain of Nexval Infotech.

When: Till May 26.

Timing: 7pm-8.30pm (Tuesday to Friday), 4.30pm-8.30pm (Saturday and Sunday).

Rules: The 22-day soccer tournament will be played in a five-a-side format with 64 corporate teams vying for The Telegraph Cup. The 20-minute matches, with a two-minute half-time, do not have offside, throw-in or side tackle. Unlike the standard five-a-side games, here the goalkeeper can use his feet to pass the ball, but he can’t score.

The 64 teams have been divided into 16 groups for the league matches. The first two teams in each group will qualify for the Main Plate; the third in each group qualifies for the Loser’s Plate and the fourth for the Bowl.

Get the feel: It’s a carnival atmosphere at the floodlit CC&FC field. On May 6, Sunday, with four games happening simultaneously at any given moment, family, friends and supporters thronged the club to cheer their teams. The first weekend of the tournament saw 64 matches being played in total, with Team Selvel looking in good form and turning out to be the favourites.

After the matches, most players chose to stay on to enjoy the evening, discuss teams and strategies and down a drink or two. The finals will be played on May 26.

Text: Sneha Dutta. Pictures: Sanat Kumar Sinha