Over the last couple of weeks, the Kerala Football Association has been organising its sub-junior and junior State inter-district championships in a league-cum-knockout format giving players ample exposure.
Surprisingly, the State senior men’s inter-district championship — which begins at the Kottapadi Stadium in Malappuram on Saturday (Sept. 2-9) — will be a knockout affair. The championship is a selection event to pick the Kerala team for the Santosh Trophy’s preliminary phase in October. But nearly half of the State’s 14 teams will bow out after playing just one match which is not likely to give the selectors much time to have a proper look at them.
However P. Anilkumar, the general secretary of the Kerala Football Association, explained that there were multiple reasons for this.
