St Stephen146;s crowned MUPC champions

The team from Chandigarh booked a ticket for Kuala Lumpur to play the South-East Asia regional finals, the winners of which will go to play the Manchester United Premier Cup in England.

Earlier, Salgaocar Sports Club defeated local rivals Sporting Clube-de-Goa 3-0 to finish third in the competition.

All the goals came in the first half through Jesvil D8217;Souza, Godfrey Silva and Pandhari Chopdekar. The tournament, however, was blighted with the malaise of over-age players with the original finalists being among four teams disqualified on the day of the final.

The cloud of over-age players was a constant threat to the tournament and original finalists SBHS Academy from Gurdaspur and SSA Academy from Mizoram along with East Bengal and Cosmos Academy from Tamil Nadu being booted out on the final day. It was fitting in a way that St Stephen8217;s, the only original semifinalist surviving after the disqualifications, emerged champions.

They were beaten by SBHS Academy in a penalty shootout in the semi-final yesterday. Beaten finalists Mahindra were placed fifth in the original standings while Salgaocar and Sporting, who contested the third place play-off, had been ranked sixth and eighth respectively.