Calcio Cup

Before anything, just a quick FAQ on this topic to set the baseline:

• Q – So what is this Calcio Cup?
  A – It’s an annual all-india inter-technical football tournament organized and totally managed by the students of ISM, Dhanbad.
• Q – So what’s in the name ?
  A – Well, Calcio in Italian means Soccer. Hence the name.
• Q – When was the first time this thing took place ?
  A – What thing ? It’s a football tournament for god sake ! Well, the idea was born in 2005, and the plan was to organize the tournament during the monsoons (sept-nov in the eastern part of India), but due to some technical issues, it was held in February of 2006, and since then it has been going on every year.
• Q – What technicalities ?
  A – Long story.
• Q – So what’s the plan for the future ?
  A – The plan remains the same. Students should organize it; learn some entrepreneurial / management / organizational skills in an engineering college itself; and most importantly have fun while doing this.

Calcio Cup was the brainchild of a bunch of guys (7 to be precise) to organize an inter-college football tournament at their home turf (viz, ISM-Dhanbad); and while the idea was cool, the execution was an uphill task. You see, in any good government engineering college, one is always given a lot of freedom to develop his personality in a manner that best suits him, hence there are an infinite number of activities / opportunities to choose from. The other side to this is, that while you can do pretty much anything inside the campus limitations, the problems arise when the name of the institute is at stake (viz..organizing an inter-college football tournament); admin approval, funds discussion, raising external funds, proper management, etc all seem like an enormous mountain to conquer suddenly.

But somehow, we managed. We managed to get some decent amount of sponsorships; although we did end up paying some amount of money from our own pocket (but that’s a lesson learned – you need to put in some of your own funds to start-off something). We managed to do a decent marketing, inviting different teams, creating a good enough buzz for a first-time event.

Although we lost that year, we did go on to win the next year; my dream to atleast win once while I was still playing for my college team had come true !

Anyways, this is just a small informal write-up about the event. For more (and official) information, there’s some information available here at ISMU website(there used to be a dedicated site for the same, but can’t seem to find it now).

EDIT: As I’m told now, student life has taken a turn for good, and an annual sports fest is now organized by the students every year. This fest comprises of over 10 different sports, including football, cricket, etc, and lasts for a good 5 days. More information available at http://www.parakram.ismu.ac.in/. Way to go !!

If you are a college student, and a football enthusiast, then you probably won’t want to miss out on the fun of playing under a jam-packed, lush-green, floodlit football ground ! Would you ??!!

Cheers !