The IFA Shield will be held on 16th September this year in Sydney-the title might bring a surprise to Kolkata's football fraternity. But this is not Asia's second oldest football championship, organized by the Indian Football Association.

The story is of some passionate football lovers, living in the city which is 11, 737 kilometers far from Kolkata. The six obsessive football-loving individuals, Rohan Chowdhury, Avishek Mitra, Arpan Majumder, Arunava Pal, Subhasis Das, and Debdeep Panigrahi started a football tournament last year in Grandville Park, Sydney named Indian Fans Alliance (IFA) Shield. The encouragement was poured by another ardent football fan, Anirban Kumar Mukherjee who promotes Kolkata's football in a similar way in the UK. 

The tournament is a one-day affair where four teams wearing jerseys of East Bengal play against four teams wearing Mohun Bagan jerseys and take part in a six-a-side football. Each match is played for 20 minutes. 

Rohan Chowdhury, a doctor of medicine who is living in Sydney for the last 11 years, divulged while speaking from Sydney over the phone, "There is a noticeable fan base of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan as well as Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting, Bangladesh. Last year, Dhaka Mohammedan Sporting fans also took part in the tournament. The matches are played on astroturf and around 150 spectators, divided into the supporters of two Kolkata giants, do not watch the matches only, become involved also."

Rohan at the same time expressed gratitude to DTDC for coming forward with financial assistance for the tournament. He said, "We are thankful to the company's owner Pinaki Chatterjee who also takes part in the tournament. Simultaneously we are also thankful to Mohun Bagan Club. The secretary presented us with 50 jerseys last year. We had tried to invite and bring any former international footballer from Kolkata last year, but that could not be materialized. However, we received video 'wish messages' from several footballers last year."

The story has however a somber part. Rohan divulged that despite having informed East Bengal Club's top brass about the competition, they did not get any positive response from the club. He said, "We had to bring 50 East Bengal jerseys from Kolkata at our cost before the tournament finally." 

Rohan also revealed that they are trying to take any former international footballer from Kolkata this year which they could not materialize last year.