CII to organise Corporate Soccer Festival

The Confederation of Indian Industry will be organising the CII Corporate Soccer Festival with an aim to create awareness and connect the key influencers for football within the Indian corporate world with tournaments to be held in New Delhi and Mumbai over the next couple of months.

The envijaged format would see 32 teams per city playing in a 6 A-Side format with kits and refreshments to be provided by the organisers. All participating teams will play a minimum of three group games with match durations being of 25 minutes split into the half.

The New Delhi-leg will be played on the weekend of 23/24 February with the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium as the tournament venue, while the Mumbai-leg is planned for March with no date or venue set.

Corporate teams interested to take part would have to pay Rs 25,000 as participation fee with more information available on the www.cii.in website.

5th Standard Chartered Indoor Corporate Soccer Championship in Mumbai

Standard Chartered Bank is sponsoring the 5th Standard Chartered Indoor Corporate Soccer Championship 2012, an inter-corporate tournament to be played at the Central Railway Multipurpose Complex, Parel in Mumbai on Saturday/Sunday, August 4/5, 2012. The tournament, for men and women, will bring together Mumbai's leading corporate houses with over 60 teams battling it out for glory.

The venue is being converted into a virtual soccer arena to ensure that some exciting, fast-paced format of soccer is in store for the enthusiastic corporate executives.

The event is being played indoors and special rules are being structured to ensure that the matches though competitive are fun. There shall be no goalkeepers or offside and the ball shall always be in play with the players taking the help of the sideboards to make play. The men's team shall comprise of four players and the ladies team shall comprise of five players. Matches shall be played on a league-cum-knockout basis.

The Standard Chartered Indoor Corporate Soccer Championship 2012 is sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank and co-sponsored by Vodafone. The Associate Sponsors are Cadbury Bournville and Budweiser, while the event is managed by Saran Sports.

This Championship is registered in the Limca Book of Records as the largest and longest running corporate soccer event in India for corporate executives. The tournament has been getting bigger every year, and this year's participation comprises of 60 teams.

Saran Corporate Soccer 5s enters the Limca Book of Records!

Saran Sports, India's leading corporate sports event management company, has created history in the Indian sporting landscape by breaking into the prestigious Limca Book of Records, with their event, the Saran Corporate 5s being recognized as the World's longest running and largest corporate soccer 5s event. The glorious celebration attained new heights today as Indian national football team captain Sunil Chhetri presented Saran Sports with the Limca Book of Records certificate, which was accepted on behalf of Saran Sports by Sanjiv Saran Mehra, the Founding CEO and Director of the company.

The Saran Corporate Soccer 5s has witnessed participation from 221 corporate teams over the past 11 years in these championships. It started with 24 teams in 2002 and has grown to 83 corporate teams participating in 2012. The various categories that have been introduced include the Super Cup, Elite Cup, Champions Cup, Salver, Bowl, Ladies Cup and Media Cup, which ensures that every corporate team based on skill sets gets a level ground to participate competitively. In 2011 a record 83 corporate teams participated, which included India's leading companies from a cross section of sectors such as Information Technology, Banking and Finance, FMCG, Consultancy, amongst others. With each passing year the tournament has grown in stature and in popularity.

Participants in the Saran Soccer 5s have ranged from Junior Managers to India Inc's big wigs, including personalities like Sunil Kaushal, Regional Chief Executive, Standard Chartered Bank; Nitin Paranjpe, CEO and Managing Director, Hindustan Unilever Ltd.; R. Gopalakrishnan. Executive Director, Tata Sons; Nirvik Singh, CEO, Grey Group, Asia-Pacific; Mihir Doshi, CEO, Credit Suisse India; Sunil Mehta, Chief Executive and Country Head, AIG; Ashwini Kakkar, Vice Chairman, Mercury Travels; Navalbir Kumar, Managing Director, IDFC, Asset Management; Rajnish Narula, CEO and Country Manager, Canara Robeco India; Partha Chatterjee, Executive Director, Keys Hotels; Rajeev Piramal, Executive Vice Chairman, Peninsula Land Ltd.; Tarun Anand, Ex-Managing Director, South Asia, Thomson Reuters; Jai Shankar, CEO and MD, Danaher India, amongst others.

Sanjiv Saran Mehra, CEO Saran Sports said, "We are absolutely thrilled to enter the Limca Book of records and receive it from the Zen master of Indian Football, Sunil Chhetri!"

He further added, "This event serves as the ideal platform for the busy executives to relive their school and college days. The tournament has successfully managed to create a stress free environment for relaxed interaction away from the pressures of work place and in the process has led to team building and camaraderie within the employees of the companies."

For the past five years, Saran Sports is also running the very successful Saran Corporate Soccer Program, the only one of its kind in the country which includes different formats such as the Corporate Soccer 5s Championship, the Corporate Indoor Soccer Championship and the Corporate Soccer League.

A personal congratulation to my friend Sanjiv Saran Mehra and his team!

Standard Chartered Corporate Soccer 5s 2012 - Successful Weekend!

The Standard Chartered Challenger team comprised of Sunil Kaushal (Regional Chief Executive, India & South Asia, Standard Chartered Bank), Nitin Paranjpe (CEO and Managing Director, Hindustan Unilever Ltd), Rajeev Piramal (Executive Vice - Chairman, Peninsula Land Ltd), Rajnish Narula (CEO at Canara Robeco and Country Manager,India at Robeco), K. Sudarshan (Managing Director, EMA Partners, Viren Rasquinha (former Indian Hockey Captain), Mini Mathur (Indian actress & television personality - former video jockey MTV India, also a co-host of the Indian reality singing contest Indian Idol), Sheena Chohan (Indian actress & model, Won the "I am voice" title at Miss India Universe, Face and Brand Ambassador of Youth for Human Rights India and The Way to Happiness Foundation-India), Bunty Walia (Film Producer) and Sachin Sharma (Television Actor).

The event which attracted a record 83 teams with over 700 players participating witnessed over 150 matches on those two days culminating with the finals on Sunday, May 27 with the winners being decided in six different categories.

A very festive and carnival kind of atmosphere prevailed with food, fun and football frenzy prevailing and lots of cheering from the spectators who had gathered in very large numbers. The match against the Go Forward team was very fast paced and fortunes fluctuated before it ended in a very narrow and exciting win for the Go Forward youngsters. Pre-event Mr Kaushal launched the Standard Chartered Corporate Soccer 5s 2012 Trophy which the teams were vying for. The members of the Standard Chartered Challenger team also launched the Go Forward Brochures.

In the various categories, the quality of football displayed this year was of a much better quality then in previous editions, it was fast and furious. Matches were played on a League-cum-Knockout basis. Many of the matches in the knockout stage went to the wire and led to penalty shoot-outs. Late on Sunday night the results were finally decided.


Here the complete list of winners

Bowl Category
Winners – KPMG
Runners Up – National Australia Bank
Man of the Match – Raja Hudda (KPMG, 1 goal)

Salver Category
Winners – Capgemini
Runners Up – Cleartrip
Man of the Match – Rameez Dalvi (Capgemini, 2 goals)

Champions Cup
Winners – Amarchand Mangaldas
Runners up – TCS
Man of the Match – Mahendra Mishra (Amarchand Mangaldas, 1 goal)

Ladies Cup
Winners – HDFC Bank
Runners Up – Vodafone
Player of the Match – Sonal Arin (HDFC Bank, 1 goal)

Elite Cup
Winners – Baskin Robbins
Runners Up – Standard Chartered
Man of the Match – Sunil Batawale (Baskin Robbins, 1 goal)

Super Cup
Winners – Indian Hotels
Runners Up – HDFC Bank 1
Man of the Match – Pranay S. (Indian Hotels, 1 goal)

Standard Chartered Corporate Soccer 5s 2012 - CEOs/Celebrities v/s NGO Kids

Mumbai's top CEOs and Celebrities are set to play a friendly football match against the kids from Go Forward football training camp in the Standard Chartered Bank Corporate Soccer 5s 2012.

Standard Chartered Bank, India's largest international bank, is sponsoring this seasons Standard Chartered Corporate Soccer 5s 2012, an inter-corporate soccer championship at the Western Railway Sports Stadium (Mahalxmi OPP Phoenix Mills, Tulsi Pipe Road) on May 26/27 and the tournament bring together Mumbai's leading corporate houses.

Tomorrow, Saturday evening a special highlight will be an exhibition match between India Inc's bigwigs/leading Celebrities including Sunil Kaushal, Regional Chief Executive, Standard Chartered Bank and a feisty team of kids from Go Forward, Standard Chartered's football training camp for BMC School kids. The match will kick-off at 6.30 p.m.

The CEOs taking part are Sunil Kaushal (Regional Chief Executive, India & South Asia, Standard Chartered Bank), Nitin Paranjpe (CEO and Managing Director, Hindustan Unilever Ltd), Rajeev Piramal (Executive Vice - Chairman, Peninsula Land Ltd), Ashwini Kakkar (Executive Vice Chairman, Mercury Travels & Chairman of VIA Ltd), Rajnish Narula (CEO at Canara Robeco and Country Manager,India at Robeco), Partha Chatterjee (Executive Director, Keys Hotels), K. Sudarshan (Managing Director, EMA Partners, Sumeet Singla (Regional Head, Corporate Affairs, India & South Asia, Standard Chartered Bank).

Further the Celebrities taking part are Cyrus Broacha (TV anchor, theatre personality, political satirist, columnist and author. He is also a stand-up comedian and prankster, best known for his show The Week That Wasn't on CNN-IBN), Viren Rasquinha (former Indian Hockey Captain), Mini Mathur (Indian actress & television personality. She was a video jockey on MTV India. She is also a co-host of the Indian reality singing contest Indian Idol), Sheena Chohan (Indian actress & model, Won the "I am voice" title at Miss India Universe, Face and Brand Ambassador of Youth for Human Rights India and The Way to Happiness Foundation-India), Bunty Walia (Film Producer), Sachin Sharma (Television Actor).

Standard Chartered Corporate Soccer Programme 2012 in Mumbai

Standard Chartered Bank, India's largest international bank, is sponsoring the Standard Chartered Corporate Soccer Programme 2012, an inter-corporate soccer programme to be held in Mumbai between May and October 2012. The programme will bring together Mumbai's leading corporate houses with over 160 teams battling it out for glory.

The programme will include various formats of the game with exciting innovations, namely

1. Corporate Soccer 5s (5-A-Side)

2. Corporate Indoor Soccer (4-A-Side)

3. Corporate Soccer League (6-A-Side)


The tournament will start with the Standard Chartered Corporate Soccer 5s on May 26/27 at the Western Railway Stadium in Lower Parel. A record number of 80 teams have registered. This tournament will be played under floodlights. A special highlight will be an exhibition match between India Inc's bigwigs, including Sunil Kaushal (Regional Chief Executive, Standard Chartered Bank) and a fiesty team of kids from Go Forward, Standard Chartered's football training camp for Bombay Municipal Corporation school kids.

Sunil Kaushal said, "Standard Chartered's association with Corporate Soccer is in line with our global strategy of promoting sports popular with the communities we are a part of. This includes the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon and now the Liverpool Football Club, one of the world's and India's favourite football clubs."

Standard Chartered Corporate Soccer 5s 2012 is sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank and co-sponsored by Vodafone. The Associate Sponsors are Budweiser and Cadbury Bournville with the event to be managed by Saran Sports. This Championship is registered in the Limca Book of Records as the largest and longest running corporate soccer event in the world for amateurs. The programme has been getting bigger every year.

Those interested in participating, please contact: Sahil Ramchandani - Saran Sports under Office: 2287 1561/2, Cell: 9322272052 .