By Our Reporter
Shillong, March 25: The Meghalaya Football Association is getting closer to holding U-13 and U-15 boys’ leagues and a women’s league, it was revealed over the weekend.
The MFA top brass held a meeting here on Saturday and, following that, MFA General Secretary Sunesh Syiem and Vice-President Cliff Nongrum said that the association has requested support for the three new tournaments from the state government.
There’s been talk of an U-15 boys’ league for years now and TSR first reported the possibility in 2018. It was hoped then that the tournament and a women’s league would begin in 2019 but nothing came of it.
Then in mid-2019 the then Sports & Youth Affairs Minister Banteidor Lyngdoh said that the state government had given its nod for an U-15 event but still nothing happened.
In 2022, the MFA announced that it would organise U-13, U-15 and U-17 leagues for boys but now it looks like only the first two will go ahead with a women’s tournament too.
The MFA is looking at having the state government finance these youth and women’s leagues like the Meghalaya State League, which is fully funded by the Department of Sports & Youth Affairs.
With regards to the MSL, the MFA looks set to introduce a quarterfinal round to make the tournament more interesting. What has happened over the first three editions of the MSL is that the toppers of the four groups progress straight to a semifinal round. It is felt that with just one club progressing from each group, the result is more or less predictable after a couple of rounds.
MSL Season 4 will begin in May, with the champions again eligible to participate in the All India Football Federation’s I-League 3, which is scheduled to start in August. Rangdajied United FC are the defending MSL champions.