KSFA look to add more teams

With the laying of new artificial turf set to start soon, Karnataka State Football Association has more plans to improve football in the State, and the key one among them is the potential addition of new teams to the BDFA leagues.

The major shake up is likely to happen at the C Division level with more clubs set to be added to the league.

"Right now we have 90 clubs in the 'C' Division and some of them are associate clubs, which means they don't get voting rights. There are a lot of people who want to start new clubs so we want to give them associate status and start two more divisions (within C division). This is the idea and we have to push it through during the General Body Meeting," said KSFA secretary M Satyanarayan.

There are also plans in place to make sure more Karnataka players get chances to play the sport. One idea is to have more State players in the Santosh Trophy team. Limiting the number of outstation players in the team could be one possibility.

The association is planning to help the local players by teaching them life skills and conducting sessions to help them understand the professionalism that is needed to make it big.

Following an online meeting with the stakeholders, the Super Division and A Division league clubs are also looking to make a coordinated effort towards marketing the state leagues.

South United pull out

Meanwhile, it was confirmed that Super Division club South United FC has requested to withdraw from the league for the upcoming season. They had already renewed their status for next season.

"At the moment we are heading that way, we are pulling out of the Super Division on an individual capacity," Pranav Trehan, CEO of South United FC, confirmed before adding this decision was not taken on the back of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

"We had a long-term approach and the plan was to get our academy up and running and that's almost at completion. We are in the last phase of construction. We are looking to launch as soon as the lockdown situation eases up. So the idea is grow our own talent and then come back to the Super Division league and higher," he confirmed.