In a good news for the football fans in Chennai, the city’s first I-league club, Chennai City F. C., has reached an agreement with the State Government regarding the rental charges for the Nehru Stadium.
The Tamil Nadu Football Association had written to the Sports Minister, ‘Ma Foi’ K. Pandiarajan requesting him to use his good offices to provide the ground at a subsidized rate. Pandiarajan has assured the club that he would look into the matter and has advised SDAT to work out a concessional rate, which will allow the club to play its remaining eight home matches.
The club officials will meet SDAT on Friday to finalise the rates.
“We’ve got a positive response from the Ministry. We don’t know the exact rates. We are meeting SDAT tomorrow (Friday). We have been assured that it would be much less than the amount we have paid for our first match,” said a club official.
The team, however, will practice at the SSN College ground.
“Since we don’t know the rates yet, we have shifted the practice venue. The ground is an AIFF approved venue and under-15 I-League matches have been held there. We will have a short evening session at the Nehru Stadium just to acclimatise before the game,” added the club official.
SDAT had charged CCFC Rs. 75,000 for using the facility at Nehru Park.
Meanwhile, the Mohun Bagan team, which is already in the city, will practice at the Nehru Stadium from 9.30 a.m. on Friday.
CCFC will take on Mohun Bagan in its third match on January 21 (Saturday). CCFC, with one point from three matches, will have a tough outing against the defending Federation Cup champion, which has won all its matches.
Mohun Bagan manager Satyajit Chatterjee was confident of garnering full three points. He said: “We aim to go for a win and keep up the pressure on Bengaluru F. C. CCFC has signed a few good players and we expect a good game, but we are confident of returning with all three points.”
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