Kerala, April 5: The All-India Football Federation's efforts to find a title sponsor for the National football championship for the Santosh Trophy has proven futile. The main phase of the tournament is scheduled to begin in Municipal Stadium Thrissur on April 9. However, Indian Oil, Coca-Cola and BPL Mobile have agreed to be the co-sponsors, according to the Kerala Football Association officials.Bharat Petroleum, who were associated with the Senior Nationals from 1993, decided to pull out because they felt they were not getting adequate mileage from the tournament. The absence of live coverage was another reason.The AIFF decision to conduct the 56th edition without the title sponsor has come as a surprise to the local organisers as the federation president Priyaranjan Das Munshi had promised to finalise the deal with Indian Oil before the commencement of the quarter-final league.PRIZE MONEY: The absence of a main sponsor has also put a question mark on the prize-money for the tournament. ``All that we can guarantee at this stage is that there will be prize-money, but we can't say how much,'' said a KFA official.The organisers hope Doordarshan will make necessary arrangements for the telecast of the semi-finals and final. However, no official communication regarding this has reached the association yet.A Singapore-based private sports channel, Asia Sports Show, has expressed its desire to record a few of the matches, but the organisers have not yet given the green signal as AIFF has struck an exclusive deal with the DD for the coverage of domestic events.The host association, meanwhile, is yet to receive the amount due to it as TA and DA towards conduct of the home matches of National Football League. The reimbursement of expenses incurred in the holding of the second division NFL matches at Kottayam were also pending.``We have lost count of the reminders we have sent to the AIFF,'' said the official. ``Unless we get the reimbursement, our plans for the next season will go haywire.''
