November 06, 2001
'33'SUBROTO CUP FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT
The idea of having junior football tournament was first conceived in 1958 by (Late) Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee, a keen soccer lover. According to him, football needed to be encouraged at grass root level in order to realise the growth of the game in the country. His concept finally took shape when the Subroto Mukerjee Sports Education Society was formed in 1960 and the first tournament was played in the same year. Unfortunately, the Air marshal did not live to see his dream fulfilled due to his untimely demise in Tokyo. The then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, while offering condolence to this great visionary suggested that the tournament be named after the late Air Marshal. Thus, started Subroto Mukerjee Cup Football Tournament in 1960 open to school teams only. Since then this tournament is played every year. This year, it is planned to be held from 17 Nov 2001 to 13 Dec 2001 at Dr. Ambedkar Stadium.Preliminary inter-school tournaments are organised in every state starting from Sub-division, district and division level culminating in the inter-school finals at the state level. The school team winning the state inter-school championship is then invited to participate in the central Subroto Mukerjee Cup Tournament at Delhi.
Starting from about 50 school teams participating in the preliminary inter-school championships in various state in 1960, today as many as 20000 schools vie with each other in different parts of the states for a berth in the Subroto Mukerjee Cup final tournament, held at Delhi. This growth in participation is indicative of the enthusiasm that has been generated at the school level. The Subroto Mukerjee Sports Education Society has succeeded in broadbasing participation at this massive scale, which is unparallel in the history of sports.
The tournament is open to an individual school team which wins the inter-school tournament and is distinct from a representatives state team comprising of players from different schools. This facilitates participation to a much larger number of boys and at the same time encourages emotional involvement. The tournament is strictly confined to school boys below the age of 17 years.
To pursue the objective further, since 1998 the tournament is being played into two age groups i.e Sub-Junior (11-14 yrs) & Juniors (15-17 yrs) in order to provide motivation to more children.
The state DPIs and Principal of the Champion School are responsible to ensure that no overage player is included in the team, and also that all the players are from the same school. The Photo Identity card duly certified by the Principal for all the bio-data, will make a player eligible to participate
In view of the existing disturbed environment in some parts of the country, it may not be out of place to mention that this tournament by its very nature helps in National Integration. This is the only organisation in the country which has brought together teams from far flung areas as Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshwadeep Islands and J&K. Never before have boys of this age group has an opportunity to be in the mainland and develop a feeling of oneness with bosy from other parts of the country. It is at this impressionable age that national integration must start. It is on play fields that strong ties of comaderie develop. The Duke of Wellington once remarked "The Battle of Waterloo was won on the play grounds of Eton".
There is no doubt that the tournament of this dimension is unique in this country. No organisation, Government or Private, has ever attempted to organise sports consciousness among the school boys of this age group to the extent this tournament has done, not only as an adjunct to the entire educational system but in providing the all important infrastructure for the future sports development.
Apart from the teams from all over India, it has attacted football lovers from other parts of the world also. In the year 1991 a team from Uzbekistant and in the year 1996 a team from Israsel and Nepal participated in this tournament. This year Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka are expected to participate.