Confusion over renaming of Millennium Cup soccer

The FIFA-sanctioned Millennium Super Soccer Cup found itself mired in controversy over its renaming, with the title sponsors deciding to drop 'Millennium' from the event's nomenclature.

The All India Football Federation, which has been promoting the event since last year, decided to rope in a title sponsor at the eleventh hour. However, the corporate house which agreed to sponsor the event has insisted that the tournament be called 'Sahara Cup'.

Ironically, AIFF president P R Dasmunshi skipped the hurriedly-called press conference, which was called to announce the new title. The event management firm, Studio 2100, said he had to rush to Calcutta on urgent work.

Neither was there any representative from the AIFF to endorse the name change. The event managers said it was the sponsors' prerogative to have a name of their choice.

When it was pointed out that a name change at the last moment for an event of such magnitude would confuse the people in the street, Sahara's deputy director Vandana Bhargava said: "We will have a re-look at the name of the tournament."

She, however, added that 'Sahara Cup' as a brand name had been very successful and the company wanted to promote it that way.

The Sahara Cup is synonymous with the India-Pakistan five- match one-day cricket tournament in Toronto, but the tournament has not taken place for the past two years, with the government refusing to allow the Indian team to play against Pakistan in a bilateral series following the Kargil war in 1999.