Ponnani A.V. Football is alien to the high school field

13 February 2023, 02:00 AM IST

• Ponnani Brothers Club team won the trophy in the All India Sevens Football Tournament held at Ponnani in 1982

Ponnani: Ponnani, who cherished the game of football, now only remembers the past football matches and histories. Three and a half decades ago, AV in Ponnani was the venue for many All India Football matches. High school grounds. This ground has played a major role in nurturing many footballers.

Ponnani’s history of football competition started from the Red Star Club in 1976 and the stars of the game emerged. In the eighties, the Keshavan Nair Memorial All India Sevens Football Tournament started football matches in Ponnani.

It lasted only three years. The ground later became the venue for the Brothers Trophy All India Sevens football matches. Brothers Trophy All India Football matches were held here for 15 years. Victor Manjila, Victor Jose, M.O. Jose, I.M. Vijayan, Sathyan and many other all-India stars have mesmerized the football lovers in the matches in Ponnani. At that time, hundreds of people from different parts of the district flocked to the ground to watch the football matches that took place in Ponnani. The fans, who were intoxicated with football, shouted and shouted at each other for the teams.

This later resulted in clashes and the stadium was set on fire two or three times to the horror of the organizers. Due to this, the organizers withdrew from the football matches which had sunk into losses. The Brothers Club of Ponnani was a prominent team that participated in many all-India competitions within and outside the state and reached the semi-finals and finals. The club won the All India Brothers Football Trophy once. Sethumadhavan, Velayudhan, Unnikrishnan, Raghudas, Thilakan, Sudhan, Shashi, Ayyub, Padmanabhan, Aziz, C.S. were the shining stars of Ponnani during the eighties and nineties. and Mohandas.

With the World Cup football tournament spreading excitement among the people, A.V. Football fans are hoping the high school field will be the site of another football epic. In the nineties, Olympian P.T. When Usha got married and came to Ponnani, she was trained in this AV. The high school was on the field.