Sikkim to host Dr Talimeren Ao Memorial Football Tourney

ALL NE STATES WILL PARTICIPATE IN TOURNAMENT
GANGTOK, 21 Feb: Continuing with the trend of hosting national level events in the state, Sikkim has now received the opportunity to host the Dr Talimeren Ao Memorial Football Tournament here at Paljor Stadium from 02 to 09 March.
The state is hosting this prestigious football tournament for the first time. All eight NE states will take on each other in the tournament which has Manipur as the defending champions.
The Department of Sports and Youth Affairs is working on a war-footing to make the tournament a grand success and to provide the best hospitality to the participating teams.
Addressing a press conference at Paljor Stadium today, S&YA Secretary, Karma P Bhutia informed that all eight states will be taking part in the tournament and will be divided into two pools of four teams each. Each team will play three matches in its pool and the top two teams will enter the semi-final rounds from each pool.
He further informed that the responsibility to choose and prepare the state team for the tournament has been given to the Sikkim Football Association, Although Sikkim has got the opportunity to host the tournament for the first time, the state team has been regularly taking part in the tournament, Mr Bhutia added.
It is learnt that if Bhaichung Bhutia is free then there are chances that he might play for the state in the tournament.
The winner of the tournament will receive a cash prize of Rs 7 lakh, while the first runner-up will get Rs 4 lakh and second runner-up will receive Rs 2 lakh and the team in the fourth place will get Rs 1 lakh. Likewise, four teams who get knocked-out after the league will also receive Rs 50,000 each.
The tournament also has cash prizes of Rs 50,000 for Fair Play, Rs 25,000 for Player of the Tournament, Rs 10,000 for Highest Scorer and Rs 10,000 for the Best Goalkeeper.
Apart from cash prizes for the players, team officials will also be awarded cash prizes, it was informed. The coach and manager of the winning team will be awarded Rs 20,000 each while the runner-team team’s coach and manager will get Rs 10,000 each.
Dr Talimeren Ao was born on 28 January 1918 at Changki Village in Mokokchung district, Nagaland and died on 13 September 1998. He received his MBBS degree from RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata in 1950.  Maharana Club of Guwahati, Assam was the first club he played for after which he played for Mohun Bagan from 1943 to 1952 and was also the first Naga to captain Mohun Bagan for 3 times.
He captained the first Indian Olympic Football team [barefooted] in London in the year 1948 and also played against Hongkong, Philippines, Singapore, Japan, France and Burma in 1951.  Dr Ao was selected as a member of All India Football Selection Committee in 1968 and later became a member of the All India Council of Sports and the Nagaland Sports Council.