Cuttack, May 1: The Football Association of Odisha's preparations for this year's Federation Cup, which will be held at Barabati Stadium here, is at its final stage.

"The Hero Federation Cup will start on May 7 with the finals slated for May 21. Tickets will go on sale from May 5 at the Barabati Stadium ticket counter and also at various merchandising centres in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar," secretary of state football association Sanjay Behera announced on Sunday evening.

"The lowest price one has to pay is Rs 30 for the galleries and Rs 100 and Rs 200 tickets will give access to special enclosure and old pavilion. Various committees and sub committees have been constituted for smooth conduct of the football event," Behera said.

The tournament is being played in Cuttack after 2010 when East Bengal won the league.

The top eight teams that will take part in the league include - East Bengal and Mohun Bahan of Calcutta, DSK Shivajians of Pune, Churchill Brothers of Goa, Aizawl FC of Mizoram, Shillong Lazong of Meghalaya, Chennai City FC of Chennai and Bengaluru FC of Bangalore.

Behera said: "We have made arrangements for the clubs to have practice sessions at the Ravenshaw University ground, Odisha police ground, Bidanasi playground and Satyabrata Stadium in Cuttack and the Utkal University ground and East Coast Railway Stadium in Bhubaneswar."

"Arrangements have been made at various hotels in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar for the players who will start reaching Bhubaneswar from May 3 onwards," he said.

"Steps have been taken for wide promotion of the event in the form of hoardings, advertisements on FM Radio channel and regional TV channels and posters in merchandising centres. We are also preparing a promotional theme song for the event as well," Behera said.

He said: "The matches will be telecast live on Star Sports."

The eight teams have been divided into two groups. It will be a round-robin format (each team will play with the other team once) and the top two sides will qualify for the semi-finals.

Each day would have two matches by one particular group at 4pm and 7 pm. Twelve matches will be played in six days (Sunday May 7 to Friday May 12). Both semi-final matches are slated for Sunday May 14.

Bengaluri FC and Mohun Bagan will have to play an AFC (Asian Football Confederation) Cup 2017 group match in Calcutta on May 17.

"If either of these teams qualifies for the finals, then final match will be played on May 21 or else it will be played according to the schedule on May 18," Behera said.