Mumbai Football’s top division MDFA Elite Division has seen some exciting matches after the introduction of two group structure this year.
The Mumbai Football District Association (MDFA) underwent a major overhaul when they decided to rejig the top division structure and introduced two groups – Group A and Group B.
The Group A features teams from Public Sector institutions such as Banks and Governmental organisations like ONGC, Western Railway, Air India, Bank of India, Dena Bank and Maharashtra Police.
Group B consists of privately owned teams like Kenkre FC, PIFA, Mumbai Strikers and the recently joined team owned by Mr Ronnie Screwvala, U Mumba.
Over the years, it was observed that teams from the Public Sector institutions were largely dominant in the MDFA Elite Division with teams like ONGC, Air India being the top contenders almost every year. With the shutting down of former I-League side Mumbai FC, the field got even thinner, thus leading the MDFA to take the crucial step of creating two separate groups.
This has opened the field up for the private clubs who wish to compete further in the I-League 2nd Division and so on since the Public Sector teams are not allowed to enter the I-League.
The MDFA Elite Division matches this year have been highly competitive and thrown up exciting clashes as the creme de la creme of Mumbai Football slug it out for the title of the best team in the city of Mumbai.
At the current point of the season, more fixtures have taken place in the Group A of the Elite Division and ONGC lead the standings with four wins from five matches and drawn one. Western Railway follows them in the second spot with three wins from six matches having drawn three games.
In the Group B, four teams have garnered four points from two matches – Companeros, Karnataka Sports Association (KSA), Kenkre FC and Mumbai Strikers. Companeros lead the standings on account of having a better goal difference.
The teams will play a single-legged preliminary stage at the end of which the top three teams from both the groups will advance to a Playoff Round, in a similar fashion as the 2nd Division I-League. However, the points from the preliminary stage will not be carried forward to the Playoff Round.
The winner of the league will be crowned based on the final league standings of the qualified teams and the bottom two sides will be relegated to the Super Division.
