MDFA scraps Mumbai Elite Division due to lack of teams

After months of not knowing if the Mumbai Elite Division would be played or not, the Mumbai District Football Association has decided to scrap the 2012/13 edition of the city league due to lack of teams able to participate as 10 of the 14 teams have other commitments at the time of the league.

Only last week the MDFA had announced that the league would be played from February 25 to March 16 with only seven teams as due to fixture problems there would be no participation from clubs playing in the I-League (ONGC, Air India, Mumbai FC) and 2nd Division I-League (Dodsal FC, Kenkre FC, PIFA) besides the Indian Navy.

This meant the Elite Division would have been played with Western Railway, Central Railway, Mumbai Customs, Union Bank of India, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers besides promoted outfits Maharashtra State Police and Companeroes SC taking part.

But then the Railway sides - Western Railway and Central Railway - pulled out due to their Inter-Railway Tournament commitments while Mumbai Customs also have an Inter-Customs tournament to play.

As per the MDFA an earlier date was not possible due to the renovation work at the Cooperage ground and non-availability of alternative venues. This left the Mumbai District Football Association with only four teams to play and therefore the MDFA decided to scrap the top tier division of Mumbai football, a sad first for football in Mumbai.