Expanded SSA football calendar on the cards for 2023

Shillong, Jan 18: The Shillong Sports Association’s football calendar will be a whole lot bigger in 2023, with new tournaments included for this season.

The big event, the Shillong Premier League, will begin on 10th September, according to the tentative calendar released today.

However, this year will also see the return of the Meghalaya Invitation Football Tournament, which has not been held for several years. This is scheduled to be held in November.

Also planned are the regular First Division (from 12th August), Second Division (14th July), Third Division (3rd June) and Fourth Division (5th May) for men and the second edition of the Women’s League (8th April).

For youth players, there will be U-10 and U-14 tournaments for boys and girls as well as an U-16 event for boys. All are tentatively scheduled to begin in February.

Meanwhile, clubs affiliated to the SSA have to renew their affiliation for 2023. This applies to clubs that were not registered for 2022 but want to return to the SSA tournaments.

The forms are available from the SSA office on payment of Rs 100 per form from 6th February onwards. Once filled, they can be submitted to the same office by 25th February (except for Sundays and holidays) between 2PM and 5PM with a Rs 1,000 renewal fee.

For player transfers, the form can be collected from the SSA office from 20th February to 18th March. The transfer form fee is Rs 50 per set per player and the forms should be filled in triplicate. The registration fee for each transferred player is Rs 600. Players will have to sign the SSA’s transfer register between 3rd and 15th April.

The SSA has invited entries for the U-10 and U-14 girls’ and boys’ tournaments from all affiliated clubs, academies, schools and even unaffiliated clubs under the jurisdiction of the SSA. Registration fees of Rs 1,000 per team should be paid to the SSA by 4th February. The last date to register players (a maximum of 20) is 8th February. The fee to register players is Rs 50 per player. There is also a Rs 50 fee for the player registration form. Champions will receive Rs 10,000, with another Rs 6,000 for the runners-up.

Age verification will be based on Aadhaar cards and municipality birth certificates only.

(TSR representational photo)