The start of the Mumbai Schools’ Sports Association (MSSA) inter-school football competitions that could not be held for the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has been delayed this year due to the non-availability of  the ground at Azad Maidan. MSSA last organised their tournaments in the 2019-20 season. “At the moment, we [MSSA] do not have a ground for the children to play on,” MSSA football secretary Sebastian Fernandes told mid-day on Sunday.

‘MMRC boss positive’

The MSSA ground was taken over by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) in 2019 for construction of the metro. “We met MMRC Executive Director [Planning & Land Acquisition] R Ramanan and requested him to provide us an alternate ground since they have occupied our ground. He [Ramanan] was positive and agreed to help us,” said Fernandes.

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