Cash incentives from BPCL

The winners of the Santosh Trophy national football championship will be getting attractive cash prizes this year. At a press briefing in Mumbai on Thursday, the sponsors Bharat Petroleum announced that the winners will walk off with Rs 2.50 lakh, while the runners-up would be richer by Rs 1.50 lakh. This is the highest prize money ever offered for the Santosh Trophy.

Other than the prizes for the winners and runners-up, BPCL have announced cash awards for the losing semi-finalists (Rs 1 lakh), Man-of-the- tournament (Rs 1 lakh), best goalkeeper (Rs 50,000), Fair Play award (Rs 50,000) and highest goal scorer (Rs 50,000).

The Santosh Trophy Football Championship which has already began with the Cluster matches on March 17 is being played at three venues viz. Ooty, Coimbatore and Chennai. The semifinals will be played on April one and two, followed by the final on April four.

— ENS