21st inter-district football championship (Dr. T Ao Trophy) commences today

Our Correspondent
Kohima, April 11 (EMN): The 21st Inter- District Football Championship 2021 (Dr. T Ao Trophy) for this year will be inaugurated by Advisor for Youth Resources and Sports (YRS) Zale Neikha on Monday evening at 5 pm.

The championship will be held at Indira Gandhi Stadium (IGS) Kohima, jointly organised by Government of Nagaland, department of Youth Resources and Sports (YRS) and the Nagaland Football Association (NFA).

During the inaugural session, NFA president K Neibu Sekhose will deliver the welcome address, while the Commissioner and Secretary of YRS, Alun Hangsing will deliver the keynote address.

After the inaugural session there will be Women’s Football Exhibition match to be played between IGS XI and Kohima XI.

Meanwhile,all 12 districts are set to take part in this year’s edition, which is a much anticipated tournament as it could not be held last year.

The championship will be conducted on league-cum-knock out system, and the districts are divided into four groups. Phek, Peren and Tuensang are in Group A; Group B- Zunheboto, Noklak and Kiphire; Group C- Dimapur, Mon and Wokha. Group D – Kohima, Mokokchung and Longleng.

The defending champion of 2019 edition Phek district will take on Peren district on April 13 at 9 am, playing the first match, while the second match will be played between Zunheboto and Noklak, third match between Dimapur and Mon and the fourth match will be played between Kohima and Mokokchung.

In the league system there will be four matches daily from April 13 till 15, while quarter final matches will be played on April 16 and semi finals from April 17.

The final match will take place on April 19 while an exhibition match will be played on April 18 between department of YRS and NFA.

The champion will receive a cash prize of INR 3 lakh while runner- up will receive INR 2 lakh and losing semi finalists will get INR 50,000 each.