Notice the howler in the placard. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: The dates for the Calcutta Football League (CFL) go through rescheduling every year and this year too is no different. The second match of the league, between Mohun Bagan and Kalighat Club, which was supposed to be held on October 20, has been postponed by a day.

Thus Bagan, and East Bengal, who take on Eastern Railways in their opener, both begin their CFL campaigns on October 21.

On Friday, BNR clinched the opening match of the CFL, defeating Kalighat Milan Sangha 2-0 at the Bagan club ground. Both goals came in the first half.

BNR’s Baba Tunde John struck early, in the 25th minute, to put his club 1-0 ahead; the Nigerian going past two opponents to score.

It was the turn of Dhiman Sinha next. In the 41st minute, when BNR were awarded a penalty, Sinha stepped up to score the second for his team.

There was high drama for Kalighat in the final moments of the first half. Under-19 player and goalkeeper Debjit Majumdar was shown a red card for handling the ball outside the box. This brought substitute ’keeper Sourav Chakraborty to the net.

Although no more goals were scored, it has to be said that BNR came very close to finishing the game with a 4-0 win. Tunde missed a sitter while Ohaba Maduabuch was off the mark in the second half.

Earlier, Olympian Badru Banerjee inaugurated this season’s league. Former footballers Arun Ghosh, Nimai Goswami, Jamshed Nasiri, Kuntala Ghosh Dastidar and Shanti Mullick were also present.

In what would have caused acute embarrassment to the Indian Football Association, balloons were released during the inauguration with an attached placard that read: ‘The Indian Football Association WB Sahara Calcutta Football League-2009, Premied (sic) Division.’ The IFA secretary Utpal Ganguli said: “I didn’t notice it. If it was there, then it was a silly mistake.”