4th Dr. T. Ao Memorial Football Tournament: Manipur champions!

Manipur beat rivals and defending champions Mizoram 4-3 on penalties at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Shillong tonight to lift the trophy of the fourth edition of the Dr. T. Ao Memorial Football Tournament, which was played from March 18 to 27.


RESULTS

Group A
18-Mar-2013: Meghalaya 3-0 Arunachal Pradesh
18-Mar-2013: Assam 2-0 Nagaland
20-Mar-2013: Assam 0-2 Arunachal Pradesh
20-Mar-2013: Meghalaya 4-0 Nagaland
22-Mar-2013: Nagaland 1-2 Arunachal Pradesh
22-Mar-2013: Meghalaya 3-0 Assam

Group B
19-Mar-2013: Mizoram 4-3 Sikkim
19-Mar-2013: Manipur 1-1 Tripura
21-Mar-2013: Manipur 3-1 Sikkim
21-Mar-2013: Mizoram 3-0 Tripura
23-Mar-2013: Sikkim 2-2 Tripura
23-Mar-2013: Mizoram 0-0 Manipur

Semifinals
25-Mar-2013: Mizoram 1-0 Arunachal Pradesh
25-Mar-2013: Meghalaya 0-1 Manipur

3rd Place Playoff
26-Mar-2013: Meghalaya 6-2 Arunachal Pradesh

Final
27-Mar-2013: Mizoram 1-1,3-4 Manipur [penalties]

VIDEO: Dr T Ao Football Tournament TV Promo

Here the television promo of the Dr T. Ao Memorial Football Tournament which is currently being held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Shillong with all the Northeastern states taking part.

Meghalaya set to host Dr. T. Ao Memorial Football Tournament

The Union Minister of DoNER and Chairman of the North East Council, Pawan Singh Ghatowar has announced that the 4th Dr. T. Ao Memorial Football Tournament will be held in the state of Meghalaya. Tentatively the tournament has been scheduled from November 15 to 23 in Shillong.

According to DIPR NEC official release, it states that in order to promote healthy spirit of competition and camaraderie amongst the youth and players of the North East states, the North East Council (NEC) instituted the NEC Dr. T. Ao Memorial Football Tournament to be hosted by the Northeastern states in turn annually.

Nagaland, the home state of former India captain Dr. Talimeren Ao, hosted the inaugural Dr. T. Ao Memorial Football Tournament while Manipur and Mizoram hosted the second and third editions respectively.

Cash award for the tournament has been announced as following:

- Winner Rs. 700,000 (7 lakhs)
- Runners-Up Rs. 400,00 (4 lakhs)
- Third Place Rs. 200,000 (2 lakhs)
- 4th Place Rs. 100,000 (1 lakh)

- Fair Play Award Rs. 50,000
- 3rd/4th place finish in league stage @ Rs. 50,000 each

- Player of the Tournament Rs. 20,000
- Highest Goalscorer Rs. 10,000
- Best Goalkeeper Rs. 10,000
- Champion Team Coach and Management Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 40,000 respectively
- Runners-Up Team Coach and Management Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 20,000 respectively

Dr. T. Ao NorthEast Football Trophy: Mizoram champions

Mizoram are the new Dr. T. Ao NorthEast Football Trophy champions after beating Sikkim 9-8 on penalties yesterday at the Paljor Stadium in Gangtok. The match had ended one-all in regulation time. The Dr. T. Ao NorthEast "DONER" Football Trophy was played at the Paljor Stadium from March 2 to 9 with the seven Northeastern states plus hosts Sikkim taking part. The tournaments aim is to promote football in the Northeast.

Mizoram received the champions trophy and Rs 700,000 (7 lakhs) while Sikkim were awarded Rs 400,000 (4 lakhs) and the runners-up trophy. Other prizes were handed out to the players, who performed throughout the tournament.


FIXTURES & RESULTS

Group A
Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Mizoram, Sikkim

02-Mar-2012: Sikkim 2-2 Arunachal Pradesh
03-Mar-2012: Mizoram 3-1 Assam
04-Mar-2012: Sikkim 1-3 Mizoram
05-Mar-2012: Arunachal Pradesh 1-2 Assam
06-Mar-2012: Sikkim 1-0 Assam
07-Mar-2012: Arunachal Pradesh 1-1 Mizoram

Group B
Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura

02-Mar-2012: Manipur 4-2 Nagaland
03-Mar-2012: Meghalaya 1-3 Tripura
04-Mar-2012: Manipur 1-0 Tripura
05-Mar-2012: Nagaland 0-0 Meghalaya
06-Mar-2012: Manipur 1-0 Meghalaya
07-Mar-2012: Nagaland 1-1 Tripura

Semifinals
08-Mar-2012: Manipur 0-1 Sikkim
08-Mar-2012: Tripura 2-4 Mizoram

Final
09-Mar-2012: Sikkim 1-1(8-9) Mizoram [on penalties]

Sikkim to host Dr. T. Ao NorthEast Football Trophy

Sikkim is set to host the next edition of the Dr. T. Ao NorthEast "DONER" Football Trophy will be played at the Paljor Stadium in Gangtok from March 2 to 9, 2012. The tournament will be organised in the state by the Sikkim Sports and Youth Affairs Department (S&YA) with financial support from the North Eastern Council (NEC) and Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER).

The aim of the Dr. T. Ao NorthEast Football Trophy is to promote football in the Northeastern region. The tournament would see all the eight Northeastern states take part besides hosts Sikkim there would be Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura in action.

The champions would received Rs 200,000 (2 lakhs), the losing finalists Rs 100,000 (1 lakh) and the semifinalists would get Rs 50,000 each. Besides these there would be a Fair Play Trophy with a cash reward of Rs 50,000, Player of the Tournament (Rs 25,000) plus Highest Goalscorer and Best Goalkeeper (Rs 10,000 each) of the tournament. The coach and manager of the champions will be given Rs 20,000 each, while the coach and manager from the runners-up team would get Rs 10,000.

The tournament was first held in May 2003 in the Assamese capital Guwahati with the hosts winning 4-1 on penalties against Manipur. The first edition had been organised by the Sport Authority of India, Guwahati then, while the last edition had been played in Manipur.

Manipur to host Dr T. Ao Memorial Football Tournament

This time around Manipur will play hosts for the Dr T. Ao Memorial Football Tournament to be played from November 21 to 30 in Imphal. The tournament is funded by the ministry for Development of North Eeastern Region (DoNER). The last edition was played in Nagaland.

In all the seven Northeastern states along with Sikkim will be seen in action. The eight participating states will be divided into two groups of four teams each with the top two sides making it to the semifinals. And the tournament can be seen as an own Santosh Trophy of the Northeast in this football crazy part of India and it gives young talent the chance to compete with the best from the region, who aren't playing at the top national professional level.

The All Manipur Football Association has named L. Nandakumar Singh as the states coach with S. Premkanta Singh as the goalkeeping coach and Ng. Brojendra Singh as the manager. 28 players have been called for the trials to select the final squad for Manipur, who would like to keep the trophy in the state.