Rise and fall of two Kamptee outfits

Nagpur, Dec 31

Kamptee town in Nagpur district is considered as the nursery of football in the region and the Rabbani Club which has produced several national or international players from Kamptee has been known as 'power house' of footballlers.

But in the last few years, the scenario has changed. This time Rabbani has even failed to qualify for the Super Four stage in the Elite Division Football Tournament organised by Nagpur District Football Association (NDFA). On the contrary, another Kamptee outfit Ansar Club made a meteoric rise and made it to the Super Four with 21 points. With one match to go, Ansar won seven out of eight and on the other hand, Rabbani managed to win just two matches out of nine.

In this regard whcn contacted the joint secretary of Rabbani Club Mehfooz Akhtar he said lack of finance and non availability for the ground are the main reason behind fall of Rabbani. “ We are not in a position to pay our players. Therefore our five Elite division and six junior teams players have shifted to other teams. It has weakened our team. Secondly, the Military Ground where we used to practice regularly was closed. Therefore out players lacked the required practice”.

Mehfooz said more than paying the players the club would concentrate to develop junior players in the future.

While speaking about the success of Ansar Club its president Dr Kamal Ansari said , “ Hiring couple of quality players from Rabbani Club, new coach Shyamal Ghosh and availability of Porwal College ground worked for us positively”.

This season Ansar has hired three Rabbani players Shorab Akhter, Shakib and Alfaiz.Apart from it they also recruited two quality Under-19 players in the squad.

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Rahul, YMFC, MOIL too qualify

Defending champion Rahul Sanskritayan Club, last year's runners-up Young Muslim Football Club (YMFC) MOIL XI have also qualified for Super Four stage. Still one match to go YMFC topped the tally with 22 points followed by Ansar Club (21), MOIL XI (15) and Rahul Cub (14). Nagpur Academy Football Club too have 14 points to their credit after playing all nine matches but they lagged behind in the goal difference. Meanwhile, the match between Rabbani and SECR (HQ) was abandoned as the ground condition was not playable following yesterday's rain in some parts of the city. Therefore both the teams got one point each. On Saturday YMFC and Nagpur Blues will play their last league match at 2.30 p.m. at the same venue. The match will also decide who will play the relegation final with Big Ben.

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