13th NEC Tamchon Football Tournament ends with IAF as winners

IMPHAL, Nov 11
The 13th NEC Tamchon football tournament one of the biggest and most exciting football and cultural event for the people of North-East in Delhi ended on Saturday (Nov 9). The tournament organized by the Tangkhul Naga Society Delhi (TNSD) in memory of a young former police officer (ACP) of the Delhi Police, late RN Tamchon has been an annual event  since 2007.
The tournament is organised with the theme 'Unity, Friendship, Understanding and Sportsmanship’ and strongly bound by its ideals to bring together and uplift the North-East community. This year the event was sponsored by NEC Ministry of DoNER, COSCO, Oil India Limited, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports and Ministry of Home Affairs, said a statement of the organising committee.
The statement continued that Kiran Rijiju, Minister of State (IC) of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports graced the closing ceremony of the tournament.  The minister mentioned about NE being remarkable in sports and his dreams of promoting it to international level. In his speech he said, “I’m delighted to see football fever gripping into our capital city of Delhi. Football is a religion in North-East India. I’m excited to watch the final match of Tamchon Football Tournament between Indian Air Force and SSPP FC.”
Soso Shiza Member NCW; Hibu Tamang IPS, Haulianlal Guite IAS, Additional Commissioner- Commercial Taxes; the eldest son of the six- time World Boxing Champion and Olympic medallist  M C Mary Kom, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and others attended the closing ceremony as special guests, it said.
Also, this year four Indian Air Force officials Air Commodore J.B Rane; Group captain Deepak Ahluwalia; Wing Commander Vikas Singh and AU Singh with other Air Force personnel were present to witness the final match of their team Indian Air Force against SSPP FC, the statement continued.
There were many talented musical and cultural extravaganzas in the event by various vocal artists, dance troops such as; Tangkhul Naga traditional dance by New Tusom Katamnao Long, Manipur and Lebang Boomani and Hojagiri Traditional Dance by Tripura Students Forum, Delhi, it added.
The theme song of the tournament ‘Go Light Your World’ was led by the United NE Choir.
The 15 day tournament was participated by 16 football teams. Participation of teams from outside North-East India such as Indian Air Force since 2017 is mark as one of the great achievement for the organizing team Tangkhul Naga Society Delhi, the statement said. The tournament has the tag of the highest paid community tournament in India with the prizes arranged as Rs 6 lakh for the winners, and Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh for first runners up and second runners up respectively for this year tourney.
The Indian Air Force and SSPP FC, who were up against each other at the last year’s final match met yet again for the ultimate final match of the 13th NEC Tamchon Football Tournament. In the spectacular match between the two teams the Indian Air Force beat the defending champions SSPP FC by 2-0 goals.
The individual prizes for the best players and coach of the Tamchon tournament were given as: Best Striker - Phungtanlian Jr. No.17 (SSPP FC), Best Midfilder - Patrick Jr. No.8 (ZFC), Best Defender - Rary S. Raj Jr.No.6 (IAF), Best Goal Keeper – Dinesh Jr.No.22 (IAF) and Best Coach – Darshan Singh (IAF).