Football-loving youth buys Nethaji

Chennai: Nethaji Football Club, former senior division league champions and one of the oldest teams in Chennai, will have a new owner this season. Rohit Ramesh, from The Hindu family, has bought Nethaji from T.R. Govindarajan, founder-member of the club.

The final set of agree ment between Rohit and Nethaji and the notification of the change in office-bearers of the club were made during the weekend.

Rohit will become the president of Nethaji and Vikram Murali the secretary.

“I am really thrilled to buy a club steeped in history. I am sure we will work hard to make Nethaji one of the top teams in the country in

the future. Our priority is to get Nethaji back to the senior division in Chennai,” said Rohit, 27.

Founded on April 8, 1946, Nethaji were one of the top teams in the senior division teams for the past 20 years, even going on to clinch the title in 2008-09, but was relegated to the first division three years ago.

Govindarajan said he was finding it difficult to run the club with limited resources. “Sponsorship was hard to come by and we found it tough to assemble players. We did our best, but couldn’t continue.

“I am now happy that the club is in the right hands,” said the 88-yearold, the only surviving founder-member of the club.

Rohit said he was retaining the 18 players of the club, and is now in the process of scouting for four to five more players.

Rohit’s goal is to ensure Nethaji plays in the Ileague.

“So our major perspective is to change Indian football. Especially in Tamil Nadu, as there is no team from here in the Ileague. And football is growing and I think we are ‘in’ at the right time,” he said.