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Regular-article-logo Tuesday, 08 April 2025

MILLENNIUM CUP DRAWS TOP NAMES 

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FROM A CORRESPONDENT Published 29.11.00, 12:00 AM
New Delhi, Nov. 29 :    New Delhi, Nov. 29:  AIFF president Priya Ranjan Das Munshi today said the Millenium Super Soccer Cup, from January 10 to 25, will be the biggest international tournament in Asia. He said 16 countries from different continents will take part. The venues for the group-league matches and the quarter finals are Kochin, Goa and Calcutta. The semi-finals are on January 22 and 23 and the final and the third-place match on January 25. All four matches are at the Salt Lake Stadium in Calcutta. The draw for the event will be held in Delhi on any day from December 20 to 23. Groups A and B wil be played in Kochi, group C in Goa and Group D in Calcutta. The AIFF president said stars like Dwight Yorke (Trinidad & Tobago), Faustino Asprilla and Freddy Rincon (Columbia), Ivan Zamarano and Marcelo Salas (Chile) will be seen in action. It remains to be seen whether Manchester United releases Yorke as the Premier League will be in full swing then. The availability of other players also depends on the demands of their European clubs. Roger Milla, ambassador for football in Cameroon, is supposed to inaugurate the tournament. Teams from Africa, Asia, Europe, Australasia, North and South Americas are expected to participate. The maximum entrants are from Asia, with Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Iraq, Japan, Uzbekistan and India in fray. South America will have three (Chile, Uruguay and Columbia), while there will be two from Europe (Iceland and Yugoslavia). Africa will be represented by Olympic champions Cameroon. New Zealand are the lone entrants from Down Under and Trinidad and Tobago from North America. When questioned about the availability of the best Indian players in case the Indian Premier Football Association clubs boycott the meet, he was confident that the problem would be sorted out. The national camp starts on December 21 at either Patiala or Calcutta under Sukhwinder Singh, and the National League will be suspended from Dec. 20 onwards. All teams are supposed to get undisclosed appearance money. The prize money at stake is $150,000 for the winners, $100,000 for the runners and $50,000 for the third-placed team. The Fair Play Award winners will get $25,000. The AIFF president said TV rights had been sold to Doordarshan but the sum was not disclosed. He added that the matches will be shown either live or deferred on the national channel.    
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