Club logo unveiled
Former Indian captain I.M. Vijayan and Kerala Santosh Trophy captain Shibin Lal (top right) were present during the unveiling of Kerala’s new professional club, in Kozhikode

Former Indian captain I.M. Vijayan and Kerala Santosh Trophy captain Shibin Lal (top right) were present during the unveiling of Kerala’s new professional club, in Kozhikode
Logo of FC Kerala, the state’s latest professional club that is run through crowd-funding, was unveiled in Kozhikode on Friday. Former India captain I.M. Vijayan and Kerala player of the year Shibin Lal were present during the function. The club that was launched in June 2014 at Kottapadi Stadium in Malappuram is coached by former Kerala Santosh Trophy coach Narayana Menon.
“We made a humble start and we want to continue being humble because we have lessons from the plight of clubs that started big in the past,” said Mr. Menon. T.G. Purushothaman is the assistant coach and Hameed is the goalkeeping coach of the side that comprises mostly of college-goers and entirely of players from inside the state.
“Right now we have a squad of around 26 and majority of them are from Thrissur. But we want to add at least 8 for 10 more and for that we will have a selection trial in Thrissur in a fortnight,” said Mr. Menon.
FC Kerala that has won the Thrissur district super league in the last two seasons had also reached the semifinal of state club football championship last season.
“We’ll be playing our first competitive game this season on August 6 in a tournament in Kanyakumari against Chennai Customs,” said the Coach. The club that practices at Thrissur Corporation Stadium had started its pre-season on May 20 and has already played three practice matches.
Funded by football fans, both in Kerala and abroad, it is understood that there are 1500-plus members who have pooled in. The investors pay Rs. 25,000, which is one-time payment and then there is an annual membership fee of Rs. 500 and another Rs. 2000 as contribution. The club management has said that the corpus fund of the investor is left untouched and they survive solely using the interest.
The club management claims that in its first two years of existence, the promoters haven’t taken money from outside.
“Our players know that we cannot pay them big, but we ensure their football development in the proper way. But at the same time we are flexible and understand that once they get noticed there will be big clubs wanting them and at that time we won’t raise obstacles,” said the A-licensed coach.