Calcutta Sports’ Journalists' Club has announced the fixture of the two-day “Merlin RISE CSJC Football Tournament 2023” in collaboration with the Merlin Group on Monday. This year, the tournament will be held at Merlin Rise Football Ground, Rajarhat between August 17 and 18.
At a formal announcement event, former ace footballers Sisir Ghosh, Dipendu Biswas, Mehrajuddin Wadoo, Lalit Thapa in presence of Satyen Sanghvi, director, Merlin Group and all members of Calcutta Sports Journalists' Club (CSJC) and team managers, announced the second edition of the tournament and unveiled the jersey. The guests also conducted the lottery that decided the sport fixture of the tournament.
CSJC president Suven Raha said, “The media football tournament is always a look-forward event for The Calcutta Sports Journalists' Club. We are happy that Merlin Group has come forward this year too to organise the tournament in their football ground. We hope it will be a grand success.”
Twenty teams namely from esteemed media houses, newspapers and journalist organisations confirmed their participation in the two-day tournament. Media houses known to fight it out for the latest ‘breaking news’ will be competing among them for the coveted trophy this time in the Merlin RISE CSJC Media football tournament 2023. This five-a-side football tournament will witness interesting football matches where media houses of the city would be vying for top honours.
Speaking on the occasion, Saket Mohta, MD, Merlin Group said, “We are privileged to host the tournament at our sports city Merlin Rise this year too. We, at Merlin, staunchly believe in sporting activities to keep our body and mind fit. Our Sports City Merlin Rise has partnered with international sporting icons like Brazilian star Ronaldinho, Yuvraj Singh and Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps for setting up their academies. We urge all media houses to participate in this grand tournament as sports keep our body, mind and spirit healthy.”
Last year, the tournament received overwhelming response from several media houses. Merlin Rise provided top-notch sporting facilities and the players enjoyed the matches. The tournament will be played in two groups with teams from the print media and the audio-visual media. A separate winner will be crowned in each category.