The 73rd  B N Mallik memorial all India Police Football championship came to an end on Friday during a  colourful closing ceremony held at Umakanta Mini stadium in Agartala  , where altogether 45 teams including 9 women teams participated in five grounds in different parts of the state.

 The two final matches of the men and women of the 73rd B.N Mullik Memorial All India Police Football Championship were held at Umakanta Mini Stadium on Thursday  and in the women’s division final match played in the afternoon, SSB defeated Assam Rifles 3-2 to become the champions.

In the final match of the men’s category, played  in the evening in the same stadium , CISF defeated BSF 2-0 to become the champion. The winning teams were awarded at the prize distribution ceremony at Umakanta Mini Stadiumon Friday afternoon in presence of  Director General of Police, Amitabh Ranjan and other senior police officials.

Earlier, on February 24th last, Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha inaugurated the  historic sporting event.

While addressing the closing ceremony, DGP, Amitabh Ranjan said that this is for the first time Tripura has hosted a senior level police tournament, which has been continued up to March 7th.

He said that different departments of the state government extended their helping hands for the grand championship played in five different  synthetic turf football grounds.

He said that in the 73rd BN Mallik all India police football championship, altogether 43 teams including teams from  BSF, CRPF, RPF, CISF participated. Among them 36 are men football teams  and 9 women football teams of police participated and matches  were played at Umakanta mini stadium, Tulabagan stadium of Mohanpur, Sachindra Colony ground at Jirania, Jampuijala football ground and Chandrapur ground in Udaipur.

Among the 45 teams, 25 are state police teams, 4 from union territories and seven teams are from central forces including from BSF, CRPF, RPF, CISF etc, said Yadav and added that some players who participated at international level have also participated in the game.

Altogether 120 matches  were played during the championship including 81 matches for men teams and 21 matches for women teams  and all the knock-out matches played at Agartala, said DGP. He said that few matches were also played in flood lights.

A total of 40 referees conducted these matches and football lovers enthusiastically enjoyed all the matches without any tickets, said DGP and expressed his gratitude towards the  football lovers of the state for their great  participation  in all matches by maintaining peace.

He also expressed his gratitude towards Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha and all the state’s departments for extending their helping hands for successful completion of this great event.

It may be recalled here that the prestigious tournament, named after B.N. Mullik, a former Director of the Intelligence Bureau, is a significant event in India's police sports calendar, bringing together police teams from across the country to compete in football matches.