Early Times Reporter Jammu | Jan 28 Under the banner of Jammu and Kashmir Football Association (JKFA), the 20-member state football team today left for the National (Under-21) Football Championship starting from February 2nd at Tamil Nadu. “Earlier, it was a 22-member team but two boys namely, Vishal Kumar and Bilal Ahmed Bhat have been dropped. Now, a 20-member team shall depart for the venue tonight,” general secretary of the JKFA, Bashir Ahmed Malik told Sports & Allied News. Led by Rohit Kumar, the team is being accompanied by State Sports Council coach, Kushey Kumar and Mushtaq Ahmed Kainth as coach and manager respectively. The team: Mushtaq Ahmed Mir, Abhimanyu, Tushar Hir, Irfan Ahmed, Arun Kumar, Ashiq Hussain, Aman Thapa, Tahir Ahmed, Deepak, Vinay Kumar, Dany Burat, Vishal Bandral, Sanjay Kumar, Vishal Bhardwaj, Rohit Kumar, Nadeem, Umar, Altaf Rashid, Zuwaid Ahmed and Irfan Shafi. It is pertinent to mention here that the under-21 team had lost in the semi-finals to Uttranchal in tie-breaker in the last year’s North Zone under-21 meet. Played at North Zone level earlier, the under-21 competition has been made a national event by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) from this year. |