Bordoloi Trophy, one of India’s oldest and most popular football tournaments, is set for a resurgence with over 5600 players featuring in a revamped competition, which will see 610 matches being played across three months from January next year.
The Guwahati Sports Association (GSA), the tournament’s organisers, have pledged its commitment to reviving and re-branding the 72-year-old football competition.
The tournament is named after Assam’s first Chief Minister Gopinath Bordoloi and its first edition was held in 1952.
“Since its inception till about first half of the 1990s, Bordoloi Trophy had been a hugely popular tournament not only in Assam, but also in northeastern and other neighbouring states. People waited the entire year for this tournament,” GSA general secretary Devajit Saikia said, recalling the iconic status the competition once enjoyed.
Initially played at the Judges’ Field, the GSA’s home ground, the tournament was later shifted to the Nehru Stadium.
Over the last 10 years however, the tournament was held in different towns of the state.
Saikia maintained that alongside Bordoloi Trophy, the popularity of other legacy football tournaments such as the Rovers Cup of Mumbai and DCM Cup of Delhi has also gone down.
“GSA has been making efforts to bring back the glorious days for Bordoloi Trophy, with which the people of Assam have an emotional and sentimental connect. With support of the state government, we are unveiling it in a new format,” he said.
Under the new, expanded format, the tournament will be held in three phases.
“It will be a 45-day tournament with about 610 matches, with participation of over 280 clubs and 5,600 players. The district level matches will be from January 20 to February 5, 2025, followed by cluster level, and then the final round,” the GSA general secretary said.
“The Bordoloi Trophy will be kicked off simultaneously in all 35 districts of the state on the same day for the first time,” he added.
Each district sports association will select its top eight clubs, which will compete in the first phase. The district champions will play at the cluster round, and the winners and runners up from the cluster level will qualify for the final round.
The final round will be played at the Judges’ Field here from March 1 and will also feature the top two teams of Guwahati Premier League.
“We are dividing the 35 revenue districts of the state into six clusters based on geographical location. Our aim is to provide maximum players with opportunity to compete and evolve Bordoloi Trophy into a talent scouting ground for top clubs,” Saikia said.
He extended his gratitude to the state government and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for coming forward to help GSA in expanding the tournament.
“The new format requires financial and other support, and we are thankful to the government for agreeing to be with us in this regard.”
Saikia said the two teams to be invited for the final round could be top clubs from Kolkata or Kerala, or from Bangladesh or Bhutan.
“We will be inviting them so that our players can compete with the best footballers,” he added.
Saikia hoped that the new format will benefit the state’s football more than the previous practise of inviting top clubs only for participation.
Besides top clubs of the country, teams from Bhutan, Bangladesh, Iran and Russia, among others, had previously participated in the tournament.
Mohan Bagan have been the most successful team with seven title triumphs, while Oil India had won in the last edition.
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