With no Gymkhana and LB Stadium, Hyderabad’s prestigious Rahim League deprived of its due respect?

Gymkhana Ground and the Lal Bahadur Stadium are not available for hosting the prestigious A-Division Rahim League football championship because of the ongoing summer camps

HYDERABAD: Strange it may sound, but the prestigious A-Division Rahim League football championship, conducted by the Telangana Football Association on the name of arguably India’s greatest coach ever SA Rahim, from the city, couldn’t be held either at Gymkhana Ground or the Lal Bahadur Stadium for want of availability of the venues!

The TFA team, led by GP Palguna, former international and now TFA secretary, were desperate to get one of the two grounds — Gymkhana Ground and the Lal Bahadur Stadium — to host the league but were not successful. Reason? The officials say that the two grounds in the city are not available because of the ongoing summer camps. And, the Goshamahal Stadium, which produced 12 Olympians and ‘home ground’ of the great Rahim, itself is no longer a sporting venue for different reasons!

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This ironically comes even after the Telangana Chief Minister, A Revanth Reddy, who has a special affinity to the sport being a footballer himself, promised to ensure the LB Stadium for football activity from January 2025!

It was the Chief Minister’s complete support which helped TFA host successfully the prestigious Santosh Trophy national championship after a long gap, and also the FIFA friendly between India and Malaysia at the GMC Balayogi Stadium.

“It is a pity that the league, which is named after the legendary India coach SA Rahim, who was instrumental in the golden era of football, had to face this sort of indifference,” GP Palguna, TFA secretary, informed ‘Telangana Today’. “It’s everybody’s guess about the attendance of late in these camps,” he said.

Fortunately, the TFA found Dr. KT Mahhe, chairman of Sreenidhi Group of Educational Institutions, in an unprecedented gesture has even arranged two buses from the LB Stadium to Sreenidhi Deccan Arena, which is hosting the Rahim League matches featuring 10 teams on week-ends (on weekdays the matches are held at Golconda Artillery Centre).

So, eventually amidst this backdrop when Palguna accompanied by Dronacharya and ex-India captain Syed Nayeemuddin, Prof (retd) K Ranga Rao, former vice-president of the then AP Football Association, were there for the inaugural match at Artillery Centre, it must have been a truly emotional and sentimental journey.