Kottappadi Football Stadium, also known as Malappuram Stadium, is a historic

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

stadium in

Malappuram Malappuram (also Malapuram) () is a municipality and town in Kerala and the headquarters of the Malappuram district in Kerala, India. It is the List of most populous urban agglomerations in Kerala, 4th largest urban agglomeration in Kerala and ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

. It is under the management of Malappuram District Sports Council, located right at the heart of CBD of Malappuram. Malappuram is unequivocally considered to be the cradle of Indian football, and this stadium owns much of credit.

History

Malappuram has a long history with football, its bond with the game dates back to British colonial era in India. The historic Kottapadi Maidan or 'Kavathu Parambu' as it was called back then, has witnessed endless football battles between the natives and Britishers. Built first as a stud farm before Independence, it became a march-past ground for the British Army where they also played football that drew interest among the locals. Then people of the town grew up seeing the elders playing barefoot with the British army men in the ground, eventually going on to become a symbol of Malappuram’s football-centric culture. The stadium also has contributed many football players to national and state teams. Late Irumban Moideen who started playing at Kottappadi joined Royal Indian Air Force and represented India as well as Pakistan and was a team captain. International Moideenkutty, who played for the State in Santosh Trophy and Railways football team worn Indian jersey against Myanmar and Russia. Malappuram Azees, Former Santosh Trophy star M.R.C Chekku, Ali Akbar and Goalkeeper Manjakandan Aboobackar etc. are few others who made in to the fame league.

Events

Post Independence, the first official tournament reported to have been hosted by the stadium was the Moidu Memorial All-Kerala Football Tournament held in 1952. All-India Civil Service Tournament,

Kerala Premier League The Kerala Premier League is the highest state football leagues in India, state-level association football, football league organized by the Kerala Football Association and played in the state of Kerala, India. It is the overall fifth tier of ...

, State Senior Football Championship and a slew of district, Malabar Premier League and state football championships were also organised here.

Coaching & practice

Currently

Kerala Blasters FC Kerala Blasters Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Blasters, is an Indian association football, professional football club based in Kochi, Kerala, that competes in the Indian Super League (ISL), the top tier of football in Indi ...

Coaching center is stationed here along with city level coaching provided by Municipality. The stadium is home ground for Malappuram FC and was the practice turf for Gokulam FC. In the 2019–20

, the stadium served as home ground for Real Malabar FC & Luca Soccer Club.

Facilities

It has dressing rooms for two teams, rest rooms, referee rooms, VIP pavilion, two guest rooms and medical facilities. Stadium can accommodate 8,000 to 10,000 persons. Floodlights will be erected in the second phase of the renovation. And plans are there to increase the seating capacity so that bigger matches may be conducted.

References

{{coord missing, Kerala Football venues in Kerala Sports venues in Kerala Buildings and structures in Malappuram district Year of establishment missing