Along with the unveiling of their team colours, the club also released their official anthem and launched their ticket portal, linked with bookmyshow.com.
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, who graced the event, assured the organisers of all help from the state government to promote the club and football in the region.
The co-owner of the club, John Abraham, along with manager Ricki Herbert, sounded quite optimistic of putting up a fine show in the inaugural season of Indian Super League, which starts from October 12 this year.
“The players are confident and we have a good chance. I believe that we can win. We may not have the stars, except Joan Capdevila, who is a big name. We have very talented players who can win matches. Let’s be positive and root for the team,” John said.
The team will don a white jersey for the home matches while for the away matches they will be seen in red jerseys. The other colour of the team’s jersey is black.
On whether the franchise has undertaken any grassroots development programme, he said, “We have not taken any grassroots-level project, as of now but we have plans and will reveal later.”
According to the criteria stated in the Invitation to Bid, bidders for Indian Super League franchises must ensure grassroots development plans for football in their home cities.
The Mumbai City FC Grassroots team has divided the city of Mumbai into five zones, with a dedicated officer assigned to each zone for the year. FC Goa has also appointed a development officer and officials posted at 12 schools around the state for the franchise’s grassroots development projects and Kerala Blasters have begun the process.
Earlier, while unveiling the name of the club on June 10, John said “Guwahati has won a franchise because of a grassroots development programme we have projected, and I am proud to be co-owner of this team from a region, which is a strong force to reckon with in football,” John said.
The side kicks off their campaign against Sachin Tendulkar’s Kerala Blasters FC on October 13 at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium at Sarusajai sports complex here while their next opponent will be Saurav Ganguly’s Atletico de Kolkata at home on October16.
“This jersey will become our identity on the pitch. A team’s jersey is always something special and always a thing to look forward to and I know all our fans have been waiting eagerly for it,” John added.
Source: The Telegraph
Post a Comment