Remember the pictures and videos from the final day of Mizoram Inter-village Football tournament final that went viral in July on various social network platforms? Well, be prepared to see more such scenes as the ninth edition of Mizoram Premier League (MPL) is all set to kick off on Thursday after a two-year hiatus because of the pandemic.
The opening day will see two matches with Chawnpui FC taking on defending champions Aizawl FC and Chhinga Veng FC facing off against Mizoram Police FC. The other two matches of the opening round will be between FC Venfhnuai and FC Bethlehem, and Chanmari FC and Electric Veng FC on Friday.
Speaking to TOI, Mizoram Football Association (MFA) honorary secretary Lalnghinglova Hmar was more than happy to see the tournament restart after the break.
"It will be a completely new Mizoram Premier League where almost 50% of the players will be completely new. Many of the earlier players have graduated to I-League and ISL. Also, some of the older players sadly were forced to retire because there was no tournament for the past two years," said Hmar, who has been recently elected to the AIFF executive committee.
The presence of so many young players will make the tournament exciting indeed, but the absence of big sponsors remains an issue. As a result, the clubs have decided not to have any players from outside the state and have also agreed to put a salary cap on the players and the teams’ budget.
Speaking on the matter, Hmar said, "This is a pragmatic approach for them to restart MPL because the sponsors have dried up. The teams don’t want to overspend one season and suffer in the next."
While this does seem to be one way to keep the tournament running, the players will surely feel hard done by the salary cap. The clubs, however, believe that they provide the players a platform where they can perform and get selected for I-League and ISL clubs.
Keeping this issue aside, the tournament promises to be a hard-fought affair. Four-time winners Aizawl will be the favourites, but other teams aren’t too far behind. FC Bethlehem, meanwhile, are the newcomers and they have roped in left-back Lalhmangaihsanga Ralte, who has earlier played for various ISL sides including Mumbai City and ATK.
As for former I-League champions Aizawl, they have brought back Henry Stanley Rosario as their head coach. He led the team when they won MPL in 2019 and can’t wait to be back in Mizoram once more.
"It’s great to go back and work in Aizawl once more. The football culture and the talent of the players in the state is tremendous," said Rosario who is yet to join the team due to personal commitments.
Although Aizawl didn’t fare too well in the 2019-20 I-League season under him, six players made it to various ISL clubs the following season and the coach hopes to unearth more talents this time around.
In his absence assistant coach Rozama will be taking care of the team and sporting director Hmingthana is quite pleased with the team composition. "We have new faces in the team and also players who have the experience of playing outside Mizoram. We have had a good preparation and feel no pressure," said Hmingthana.
As for the format of the tournament, eight teams will play each other twice over 14 rounds. After that the top four teams will qualify for the semifinals, which will be a double-leg affair.
While the matches of the first four rounds will take place at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, the action will shift to the Assam Rifles ground at Lammual for the fifth and sixth round. The seventh round will then be played in Khawzawl in the Champhai district. After that the action will return to RG Stadium for the remaining matches. As far as telecast is concerned, it will be available on Zonet cable TV as well as on its OTT platform.
With MPL coming to a halt for the past two years and the I-League matches also being held in Kolkata for the past two seasons, football fans in Mizoram have dearly missed what they love most. Yes, some of the smaller tournaments have begun this year but the start of MPL will surely feel like football is once again back to normal in the hills.
