The coronavirus pandemic reduced the 13th graduation ceremony of elite Tata Football Academy (TFA) to a low-key affair on Saturday.

The usual camaraderie and happiness was missing among the 20 graduates who bid goodbye to the academy after living together for four years.

The convocation ceremony for the 14th batch at TFA was organised in the presence of chief protocol and sports Farzan R Heerjee and chief of sports excellence of the company Mukul Choudhari.

Video recorded messages from Tata Steel CEO and MD T.V. Narendran and vice-president (corporate services) Chanakya Choudhary congratulating the graduates were played at the venue.

Keeping in mind COVID-19, safety protocols, including mandatory social distancing and other guidelines were put in place. Graduating cadets from seven states, five of whom have already played for national and regional teams in various age group tournaments, were awarded certificates.

Sandeep Mandi, one of the graduates who is from Jharkhand, has been offered a professional contract with Jamshedpur Football Club.

So far, 146 TFA cadets have represented the country while 24 have captained various teams.

Set up in 1987, TFA is functioning with the objective of setting up and providing mainstream of national football with a perennial pool of young footballers oriented to international standards. Budding talent is scouted from all over the country in the age group of 14 years, trained for four years and fed to the mainstream after graduation and at the expiry of a conditional contract.

In the past four years, the graduating batch had won two tournaments, one zonal league championship and was runner-up in one fixture.

The batch won the All India Biju Patnaik tournament, Tata Utkalika fixture, I League zonal championship for under-16 and 18 and the local Jamshedpur Sporting Association league, besides finishing runner-up in the Nayagarh tournament.