Reigning I-League champion Chennai City FC will play a pre-season tournament in Bangladesh from October 19 to 30. The 2019 Sheikh Kamal International Club Cup, a biennial club tournament will feature eight clubs, three from Bangladesh, three from India, including Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan S.C., and a team each from Nepal and Maldives.
This will be the first tournament in which CCFC will be fielding its full strength squad including its foreign recruits before the I-League.
The tournament will have two groups of four each with a round-robin stage followed by the top two from each group progressing to the semifinals and final.
CCFC owner Rohit Ramesh said, “This is the first international tournament we will be playing and it will be a good preparation for the AFC competitions next year.”
Bangaldeshi club Chittagong Abahani and clubs from Nepal and Maldives could be potential opponents in the AFC competition and the I-League title-holder feels it will be well served by the familiarity.
The club is currently having its training in SRMC in Chennai and will be moving to its base in Coimbatore from October 1. CCFC earlier took part in the Durand Cup with its local players in August.
CCFC makes big screen debut
After winning the title last year, CCFC has made a splash on the big screen in a movie ‘Bigil’ featuring one of Tamil cinema’s biggest stars, Vijay. In the movie, CCFC’s old logo is featured prominently on jerseys worn by the lead actor. In fact three players from the current CCFC squad K. Ajithkumar, Charles Anandraj and Sriram may even have a fleeting presence on screen. The trio even gave some football tips to the crew and were thanked during audio launch function held on Thursday.
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