Mundgod to host 17th GCM football tournament

Friday, September 09, 2011

Phayul
By Tendar Tsering

DHARAMSHALA, September 8-- The 17th Gyalyum Chemo Memorial (GCM) Football Tournament will be held in Doeguling Tibetan Settlement, Mundgod in the south Indian state of Karnataka.

File Photo: Potala FC, Mungod lifts the 15th Gyalyum Chemo Memorial Football Tournament Cup. (Tibetoday Photo)

"The tournament will be from September 25 to October 3 and 14 teams from across India including one team from Nepal are registered to participate in the GCM," said Kalsang Dhondup, executive secretary of Tibetan National Sports Association (TNSA).

“We have a new team from Shillong as well,” Kalsang added.

The executive secretary said that the team registration fee for the tournament has been increased to Rs 5,000 this year.

"Last year, the fee charge was Rs 2,000. But then we faced a little shortage of funding, so we increased the fee this year," Kalsang clarified.

Speaking to Phayul, the executive secretary said that a newly formed Sports committee in Mundgod generously accepted to organise the tournament at the settlement.

"They are making a new standardised football field specifically for the tournament," he said.

The GCM is the most popular football tournament in the exile Tibetan community. It was initially organised in 1981 as a "club level tournament in memory of the late mother of the XIVth Dalai Lama."

The 16th GCM was played in Bylakuppe Tibetan settlement, also in the same state of Karnataka which hosts the largest Tibetan settlements in India.