SAFF Cup: Coaches lash out at chaotic start

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The SAFF Cup football tournament that begins at the Greenfield stadium here on Wednesday is billed as the return of international football to Kerala's state capital after a gap of 25 years. But confusion and chaos on the eve of kick off forced the participating teams to slam the organisers on Tuesday.
Leading the criticism was a visibly upset India coach Stephen Constantine."If you ask me what is wrong with the organisation, I will say everything is wrong. Nothing is right here, I had to wait for hours at the reception to get my room," Constantine said during the pre-tournament press conference.
Afghanistan coach Peter Segrt was not at all impressed at the situation either. "At times we had to wait 45 minutes for our bus. At times we had to shift from our hotel rooms because someone else had booked into our rooms earlier. At times we couldn't train properly because another team was training at the same venue. But the biggest problem happens when you find someone shooting your closed-door training session and making a movie out of it," Segrt said. "I think all coaches would have experienced this. It is acceptable to allow shooting for 10 or 15 minutes, but to shoot the entire training session is unprofessional."
The coaches also complained that they hadn't been able to see the playing field yet. Constantine said that he has only seen the outer view of the stadium and is yet to know what the turf looks like.
The Sri Lankans, who were the first to arrive in the city for the tournament, said they have been denied an opportunity to visit the tournament venue. "We came here two weeks ago to get acclimatised. But I don't know how the stadium condition will be. No one cared to address our grievances," said Sri Lankan coach KM Sampath Perera.
The Nepal officials were not able to reach the press conference on time and the coach Patrick Aussems blamed it on the organisers. "We were taken to a wrong hotel and it took one hour for us to get back. Right now, I am not sure if the main stadium is in Trivandrum or in Delhi and I don't know to whom should I ask all these things," he said.
But Constantine was not surprised with all the chaos surrounding the tournament. "I have been part of three SAFF Cups and all were same. I expected this even before coming here," he said.