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Posted 2 years ago

Soccer General

How Gokulam Kerala was let down

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The Gokulam Kerala football team who travelled to Tashkent, Uzbekistan for the AFC Women’s club championship, could not participate due to the ban on the All India Football Federation (AIFF), by FIFA.

However, the subsequent lack of concern by officials in charge of Indian football, has made matters even more distressing for the team.

On being informed by the AFC about their ineligibility to participate, the Gokulam Kerala team manager had requested written confirmation, before finalizing their return home. Later, a tweet informed him that such a letter had been sent to AIFF by the AFC.

However, this was not forwarded to him, and repeated calls received no response. Finally, friends at AIFF, were able to unofficially confirm the communication between the AFC and AIFF. However, there has been no official response from the AIFF about this yet.

The team was then left to hang in the balance, and informed that the SC was looking into the issue. Meanwhile, they were denied tickets to travel to the match venue.

However, mixed messages from the sports ministry and the AFC, offered some hope to the team, who were asked to wait till Aug 19^th for a final decision. The Uzbekistan Football Association (UFA) even arranged for some grounds for training.

The External Affairs ministry also reached out to the team to offer any help, if needed. However, a resolution could not be reached, and the team were informed by AFC , that without a lift on the ban, participation cannot proceed. The team notes the compassion and cooperation extended to them by the AFC, and the UFA, in contrast to the AIFF who didn’t even communicate it’s correspondence with the AFC, to the team.

The team’s return has now been finalized. With several months of training wasted, the team wish, that even with the ban in place, that they had been extended more transparency in the matter.

“We agree that in these regulations of [the administrative bodies], it is not written to be compassionate but we shouldn't forget that players are also humans, not expendables,” said their manager, Kevin Kishore, in an interview.