Minister: Bengal to host Swami Vivekananda Cup from Sept 11

Kolkata: Sports minister Aroop Biswas on Thursday announced that his department, along with IFA, will organise ‘Swami Vivekananda Cup Zilla Club Football Championship’, an inter-district tournament from September 11 to commemorate the 133 years of Swami Vivekananda’s historical and impactful speech at the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago.

Speaking at a press conference at New Secretariat building, Biswas said that all the 23 districts will take part in the tournament. About 8 teams from each district will participate in the tournament. Initially, the matches will be played within the districts. Two best football teams from each district will be able to play inter-districts matches. A total 390 matches will be played during the whole tournament which will continue till March 2026.

The minister also stated that the tournament will begin from Howrah Belur on September 11 and the first match will be played on the ground that was set up by none other than Swamiji himself.

One of the main purposes of the initiative is to identify the talented footballers from the districts. Indian football ranks 137 globally.

“The progress in Indian football is not possible without the representation and leadership of Bengal and its talented players. The progress of the country’s football has been slowed down due to narrow politics. We want new talents to come up through the tournament who can take Indian football forward,” Biswas told the reporters.

He also stated that the young footballers from the far-off districts will get an opportunity to display their skills during the tournament. It will also make the game of football more popular and will also contribute to the supply pool of talented footballers at the national level, the minister added. The MoS Sports Manoj Tiwari, IFA President Ajit Banerjee and secretary Anirban Dutta also attended the event.