Panaji: Salgaocar FC
and Sporting Clube de Goa were forced into pull out announcements after the
AIFF
stayed mum on their letters for close to a month.
Salgaocar FC and Sporting Clube were the only two clubs which responded to the AIFF’s proposal within the week’s deadline on May 25. In fact, Salgaocar were asked for “specific suggestions” by AIFF general secretary
Kushal Das
and told that a lot of effort and time had gone into preparing the proposal when the club said the “plan in its current form is not feasible”.
But when the club wrote back on May 28, the AIFF stayed mum.
“Our main objections are over the relegation of the
I-League
to a second tier league from the nation’s premier competition, the necessity for a franchisee fee rather than merit to qualify for the newly mooted top tier league, and the governance of all top leagues in the nation by anyone other than the AIFF exclusively,” Salgaocar general secretary Adlear D’Cruz said in his letter.
“The prospect of deciding the fate of a club with over 60 years of history through a single meeting followed by emails back and forth, is an affront to our legacy, contribution to the sport in India and unacceptable to us,” said D’Cruz.
Salgaocar wanted to know how the AIFF would address the issues in a transparent and democratic process with all stakeholders, not just individual clubs or Goan clubs, as was suggested by the AIFF.
The AIFF, not surprisingly, did not reply to Salgaocar’s letter, or to a previous letter written by Sporting Clube CEO Victor Fernandes, leaving the clubs with no choice but believe that “AIFF will enforce the May 17 proposal, which would promote the ISL to the nation’s premier tournament with a ‘pay to play’ franchisee model with no promotion or relegation.”
Even when Salgaocar tried to speak to AIFF officials to know the way forward, there was no clarity as officials insisted that either the AIFF president Praful Patel or AIFF general secretary Kushal Das was out of the country.
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