Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) gave footballs to 10 coaching centres as a part of its drive to revive the tradition and football culture in Bengal.
Debashis Kumar, Member, Mayor in-Council (Parks and Gardens) handed over the footballs to the organisers of 10 football clubs. Each club was given 10 footballs.
A friendly football match was also held in memory of Achyut Banerjee, a great football coach of the past.
A statue of Banerjee was unveiled a few days ago. The football match was scheduled to be played on August 16, which got postponed due to incessant rain.
Banerjee was a coach of Kidderpore Football Club. He had coached great players like Tarun Basu, Prasun Banerjee, Shymal Banerjee and Shyamal Ghosh, among others.
Kumar said KMC was trying hard to revive the football culture of Bengal.
"There was a time when 7 to 8 players from Bengal used to represent India. Now we depend heavily on foreign players and foreign coaches. Our attempt should be to nurture our own players and reduce our dependence on foreign players," he said.
Meanwhile, KMC also felicitated six of its footballers at the function on Monday.
It may be recalled that KMC was the first civic body that had accorded reception to Habul Sarkar, one of its employees who was one of the members of the Mohun Bagan squad that had defeated Eastern Yorks in the IFA Shield final in 1911.