A month-long five-a-side football fever at Calcutta Parsee Club

Five-a-side football tournaments over one day or at most over the weekend are all held in many major cities all around the country either solely for corporates or in a locality for amateurs. But one rarely hears about such events held for both corporates and mere football enthusiasts and just imagine if it lasts for a month!

Well that’s what the Calcutta Parsee Club has been organising for almost three decades now and this year it will be the biggest turnout in the history of the competition with 63 (37 clubs + 26 corporates) teams competing between March 15 and April 13.

Very few of those ‘clubs’ are actual clubs like Calcutta Cricket & Football (CCFC) and hosts CPC of course but otherwise most of those teams comprise of football lovers who get together to both enjoy and try and win one of the longest-running five-a-side tournaments in the country.

When the tournament started back in the late 1980s’, there was only one single tournament for both corporate and club teams but since the corporates found it difficult to match standards of younger and fitter club sides, the competition was split into two.

Each of the two tournaments have a group stage + knockout format with every team guaranteed at least one knockout tie since both the club and the corporate competitions have main and silver versions.

CPC rely on both the entry fees and help from other well-wishers to run the tournament but as one of the members of the organising committee told Sportskeeda, there are several challenges that have to be overcome to pull off the whole event.

“The biggest challenge we face is that of time. Our club’s only full-time employees are our four malis, and while they do a sterling job, there is an obvious capability constraint. We therefore rely on a small core group of ‘organisers’, for whom this almost becomes their life for a 5-week period.

“And then we have a larger group of ‘volunteers’, who assist with duties as varied (yet important) as refereeing, being linesmen, keeping track of match results / player registrations, running the canteen, organising the prizes, organising the final night, maintaining our online presence and finally, just being there for moral support. It’s a lot of work, and the only ‘reward’ is the satisfaction of pulling this tournament off successfully, but it’s worth it,” the member told Sportskeeda.

Since 2014 is going to be their biggest ever edition, the organisers are also looking at other innovative ways of promoting the tournament and they have already made a good start as the official facebook page of this year’s tournament already has more likes than last year and the competition hasn’t even started yet.

“The game remains the same, but considering the massive surge in club teams, the standard and competitiveness of football will be at its highest. Over the past few years, however, we have tried to embrace technology and make the tournament as interactive as possible.

“This year, we also intend to publish many more photographs, and also some videos (match highlights, player interviews, tactical insights etc.). There will be more analysis as well (goals, assists, saves etc.). And finally, there is a likelihood of introducing a daily ‘player of the day’ award,” the member added.

East Bengal’s Alvito D’Cunha made a guest appearance last year

All that sounds exciting for the participants and if that wasn’t enough, they will be encouraged by the fact that although this tournament is solely for amateurs there are occasional guest appearances from professionals. In the past Calcutta Maidan greats like Jamshid Nassiri, Alvito D’Cunha have played some matches.

Between June and July, the football crazy city of Kolkata will be embracing the excitement and drama of the FIFA World Cup. However starting this Saturday and until mid-April, there is the five-a-side fever at CPC to catch up with.