Sikkim to host East Zone round of Santosh Trophy SFA’S MARKETING PARTNER SPONSORS KIT, ANNOUNCES PERFORMANCE-LINKED REWARDS

GANGTOK, 12 Dec: Sikkim Football Association is hosting the East Zone round of the 68th edition of the prestigious National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy for the first time in the state from 26 to 31 January here at Paljor Stadium next year. The East zone has teams from West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, defending champion Services and the host team Sikkim.
This year the championship is being held in two phases. The zonal matches will be starting from 26 January at the respective zones and the final phase will be played at Siliguri in West Bengal. The other zones are Goa for West, Tamil Nadu for South, Delhi for North, Mizoram for North-East and Sikkim for East.
Addressing a press conference today, SFA general secretary, Menla Ethenpa informed that in the East zone, Sikkim has been placed with defending champion Services and Jharkhand in pool A, while pool B has West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. He further informed that only the top team of each pool will move forward to the final round of the championship which will have the U-21 teams.
Mr Ethenpa mentioned that the opportunity to host the East zone has been given to SFA for its organizational capacity along with the passion for the game of football in the state and the availability of the state-of-the-art infrastructure for football at Gangtok. This is a historic milestone for the state and another feather in the state government’s cap, he added.
Speaking on Sikkim’s performance in this championship, Mr Ethenpa mentioned that the state team’s performance in this championship has not been very impressive so far since most of its talented players were signed up by big clubs and have been playing for other state teams. The state team has made it to the quarter-final round in its best performance so far.
Ideas Unlimited Sports Management Group [IUSMG], India, which is the marketing and management partner of SFA, is sponsoring kits for the state team for the championship. The official jersey of the state team for the championship was also released by the SFA president, BK Roka today.
IUSMG Chief Operations Officer, Sanjay Srivastav has also announced cash incentives to the state team as part of its youth development and motivational programme. He announced that the state team will be awarded Rs 25,000 if it reaches the semi-final round, Rs 50,000 for making it to the finals and Rs 1 lakh for winning the tourney. If the team reaches the quarter-final round then the two best players will be extended one-year scholarship of Rs 2,000 per month.