IFFHS NEWS OF THE WEEK 13 - INDIA, AFRICA


Picture : The winners 2020/21 of the Indian Awards - Lalengmawia, Angulo, Jamil, Bhattacharya


The Indian Football Awards


The Football Players Association of India (FPAI), Indian Football Awards 2019-20 & 2020-21 along with the AGM 2020-21 was held in The Zuri White Sands, Goa last week.
The following players were awarded according to the number of votes they received from their fellow professional colleagues in Ileague & ISL. The voting for the 2020-21 season was conducted online due to the relevant Covid -19 protocols which the players had to follow.

The winner of the award received the maximum number of votes.

Indian Player of the year .


Sunil Chhetri – 2019-20 ( BFC)
Arindam Bhattacharya – 2019-20 ( ATK MB)

Young Player of the year  


Jerry Mawihminghthanga (2019-20) – Odisha FC               
Lalengmawia (2020-21) – North East United  



The winners 2019/20 - Chhetri, Mawihminghthanga, Krishna, Lobera                      

                                                                                           
Foreign Player of the year  


Roy Krishna – 2019-20 (ATK MB)        
Igor Angulo – 2020-21 ( FC Goa)                                                 

Coach of the year   


Sergio Lobera – 2019-20 ( Mumbai City)
Khalid Jamil – 2020-21 (NE UTD FC)


The FPAI also felicitated a few former stalwarts of Indian football :
1.       Savio Medeira
2.       Bruno Coutinho
3.       Derrick Pereira
4.       Brahmanand Sankhwalkar
5.       Clifford Reyes Miranda
6.       Samir Naik     




Comoros Islands and Gambia qualify for maiden AFCON appearances.

The Comoros Islands, an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Indian ocean and off the southeastern coast of the African continent exploded into frenzy when at the end of qualifiers yesterday, they picked their maiden qualification for next year’s African Cup of Nations, Cameroon 2021. The predictable scenes of jollity and revelry were only matched by similar euphoria when the tiny West African bounded by Senegal and the Atlantic coastline, named Gambia embraced the only other maiden qualification of the 24 teams to converge on Cameroon early next year. 

So far, only one more team is awaited to complete the field of participants in next year’s finals after the game between visiting Benin and Sierra Leone was called off following deep procedural disputes over how to manage the visitors who ponderously headed for their hotel although half-a-dozen members of the team were said to have tested covid-19 positive. The team that eventually qualifies will join Nigeria as qualifiers from group L.

The 23 qualified teams include: group A(Guinea and Mali); group B(Malawi and Burkina Faso); group C(Sudan and Ghana); group D(Gambia and Gabon); group E(Mauritania and Morocco); group F(Cabo Verde and Cameroon); group G(Egypt and Comoros): group H(Algeria dn Zimbabwe); group I(Senegal and Guinea Bissau);group J(Tunisia and Equatorial Guinea); group K(Ivory Coast and Ethiopia); group L(Nigeria and Sierra Leone/Benin).