Jamshedpur Sporting Association (JSA) celebrates Platinum Jubilee

Jamshedpur Sporting Association (JSA) today celebrated its Platinum Jubilee marking 75 years of Jamshedpur’s sporting legacy.

Jamshedpur: JSA was started in 1945 with three sporting disciplines Football, Hockey & Volleyball. It initially started with a football tournament which has grown into a much larger ecosystem with 44 teams participating in 3 levels, Premier division, Super Division & A Division with 150 games being played in the league. JSA football league has its share of legacy as one of the oldest tournaments in the eastern region after Kolkata.

JSA has been supported by Tata Steel and has a huge community connect with all players are from local community, with majority of them tribal participants. The tournament enjoys not just good participation but also a very good local fan following, where there are almost 10 thousand audiences who attend the games in the final stages of the league.

The craze of football has grown exponentially in last 4 years. Notably, for the 2 spots in Super Division, there were 30 teams competing for the same in the qualifying rounds.

JSA’s volleyball and hockey tournaments have 8 teams participating in each discipline, while 2 years ago in 2019, women’s football league was started. In the same year for the first time JSA had qualified women referee officiating league games, setting a very inclusive and progressive example. JSA also has produced FIFA referees, national level Match Commissioner, referee assessors and officials affiliated to AIFF.

While Tata Steel hosts the tournament, the local affiliated clubs who have been in existence since inception of JSA have also played a big role in sustaining the league and share the legacy and success of JSA’s long standing league. Many of the JSA club owners’ / office bearers are on the JSA committee and have been helping in the conduct of the tournaments.

In wake of ongoing pandemic, the celebrations were kept low key. An exhibition match between Tata Steel and Tata Motors-oldest participating teams, was organised.

A new logo of JSA was also unveiled.

Tata Steel CEO & MD Mr T V Narendran was chief guest during today’s event. Mr Chanakya Chaudhary, Vice President Corporate Services Tata Steel who is also President JSA, and other dignitaries were also present during the function at JRD Tata Sports Complex.