AIR MARSHAL SUBROTO MUKERJEE OBE

HISTORY SUBROTO CUP INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT

INTRODUCTIONThe idea of having a junior football tournament

was first conceived in 1958 by (Late) Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee, a keen soccer lover whilst he was the Chief of the Air Staff. 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 first took shape when Subroto Mukerjee Sports Education Society was formed in 1960 after his untimely demise in Tokyo.  The first tournament was also played the same year. At the time of the inauguration of the tournament, 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 open to school teams only. Having started in the year 1960, the tournament was played between the teams from Delhi for the Junior Boys category only.

THE UNIQUE FORMATPreliminary inter school tournaments take

place in every state and union territory of India. The tournaments start at the sub-division, district and division level, while the inter school finals are held at the state level. The school teams that win the state level interschool championship qualifies to participate in the main Subroto Cup Football Tournament at Delhi.

INCLUSION OF SUB-JUNIOR BOYS ( U - 14 ) - LIVING UP TO THE MOTTO ‘ Encouraging Football at Grassroots Level ’

The Sub-Junior (11 to 14 years) category was started in the year 1998, on the request of the School Games Federation of India (SGFI). Starting from a meagre 50 school teams, participating in the preliminary inter school championships, held in various states in 1960, today, as many as 32000 schools, nationwide, vie with each other to participate in the main Subroto Cup International Football Tournament, held at Delhi. This spurt in participation is indicating of the enthusiasm that has been generated at the school level. There is no game saying that no other organisation in the country has succeeded in broad basing participation in football at such a massive scale. It is the only tournament of its kind, not only in this country, but also in the entire soccer world.

SOLE OBJECTIVE The tournament is open an individual school team, which wins the inter

school tournament and is distinct from a representative state team comprising of players from different schools. This pattern opens out a chance to a large number of schools to field their teams in the preliminary rounds. With a growing popularity of this tournament, teams from the remotest areas of our nation participate in this tournament. Ultimately, this results in identification of the talent from all corners of the country and providing them right direction towards achieving their goals in the field of football.

FOREIGN EXPOSURE In addition to providing a national level platform to the young budding

footballers of our country, the society started inviting teams from friendly foreign nations in the prescribed age category with the sole aim to ensure ample match exposure to foreign counterparts. This has definitely enhanced the standards of our young talents and this always worked as a catalyst in keeping up the morale of all the participants. Teams from Brazil, Sweden, Indonesia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Israel, UK, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan have taken part in this prestigious international event. The standard of football displayed by MSP Higher Secondary School,

Malappuram, Kerala against the football giants Fluminense FC from Brazil during the Grand Finale 2014, was spectacular and surely proclaims the exposure gained in playing against top foreign teams.

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT In the year 2011, Subroto Cup has made a massive revolution in the

history of Indian Football by creating a gateway to the Junior Girls to compete each other with an aim to encourage women empowerment. Initially, in the year 2011, tournament was conducted for the teams from Delhi & NCR in which 12 teams have participated. In 2012, it was widened to PAN India level and the participation has gone up to 29 teams this year including a team from Afghanistan. The story of Haryana Girls has touched everyone’s heart which is only because of football.

ENHANCED PARTICIPATION Participation has

been tremendously grown up to 91 last year and 93 teams this year which gives true answer to the sincere endeavours undertaken by the Society.

SUBSTANTIAL ENHANCEMENT OF PRIZE MONEYPrize money has

been increased substantially for the participants so as to encourage the young footballers to take more interest and keep up their morale.

CONTRIBUTION TO INDIAN FOOTBALL Subroto Cup has played a pivotal role in contributing its part to the

nation by providing the greatest footballers who have represented our country and brought laurels. Also, many of the talents who are now representing the top clubs in India have come up through Subroto Cup only. These players always cherish and proudly state that participating in Subroto Cup has become a turning point in their lives. Some of the players are :-

Shyam Thapa Parimal Dey Mohan SinghAjay Kumar Singh Victor Amalraj Prashanto BanerjeeParminder Singh Harjinder Singh Shyamal BanerjeeChinmoy Chatterjee Kabir Bose Baichung BhutiaSangram Mukerjee Pratap Senapati VP SathyanBijen Singh Amit Das Ashin BiswasVP Satish Kumar Nirmal Chhetri Robin SinghJackie Chand Singh