Clubs accused of foul play, AIFF livid

Vinayak Padmadeo

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 29

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is ready to read the riot act to several I-League clubs as issues of non-payment of salaries, delay in issuance of No Objection Certificate (NOC), dual contracts and fielding overage players have started to line up at its doorsteps.

There are several complaints against the clubs, including Minerva, who have been dragged to the AIFF Player Status Committee (PSC) for non-issuance of NOC and non-payment of players’ salary.

Arnab Das Sharma, Germanpreet Singh, Victor AmobiOzoanibueze, Amarjeet Mishra, Shubham Sarangi and Ravi Kumar are few of the Minerva Academy FC players who have alleged wrongdoing on the part of the club.

Minerva are not alone. DSK Shivajians, too, have been reported to PSC for similar violations. Three of their players (Jerry Lalrinzuala, Rakshit Dagar and Baiklian Paite) had alleged that the club failed to pay them. Calling it a “repeat offender”, PSC has referred the matter to AIFF’s disciplinary committee.

Jammu United FC and Ozone FC have had their results cancelled and were also sanctioned for fielding overage players in the AIFF U-15 Youth League. Both the clubs allegedly submitted fraudulent birth certificates for overage players.

“We have got lots of complaints from the parents that they have not signed any contracts with the clubs but the clubs say that they have the contract. And it is in all the age groups, not just for youth or junior players. It is very sad,” AIFF general secretary Kusal Das told The Tribune. 

“These unnecessary issues create so many diversions and is a waste of time for so many people…federation invoking disciplinary clauses, players having a bad experience and saying that they don’t want to go back to the clubs, the clubs not releasing the players for the national team, which I think is really harmful for Indian football,” he added.

Das said that players’ complaints were a bigger problem. “There are complaints across the board. Young players have been taken by the club and promised something and not paid. The players say that they have not signed anything and that they do not want to go back to the club. I think federation must take steps to stop this completely,” he said.

New rules

Following several complaints about the contracts from the players, AIFF now insists that the contract must be registered with AIFF within 15 days of its signing, otherwise “it will be deemed to be void”. Besides, four sets of the contract should be made in each case. One each with the players, the club, AIFF and one with the state associations in the case of a senior player. For junior players, there must be three sets of the contract, one each with the players, the club and one sent to AIFF for registration. 

“Already some cases have gone to the disciplinary committee. If it is proved that there is fraud and forgery, then it could have serious implications, not just financial,  for the club,” he said.

Confusion

Minerva Punjab FC owner Ranjit Bajaj clarified that most of the issues regrading players’ NOC in is club arose from from a technicality. “Two years back, AIFF had no laws when we entered. They selected our boys for the national camp. After two years, when the boys returned, issues started to come up with PSC. It is true that the boys did not sign any contract as there was no such rule then. The rule then was that a minor had to sign a contract. They changed the rule this year but those boys were with them for two years. How am I supposed to enter into a contract with them? It is a technicality,” Bajaj said.

“We have given AIFF 45-50 players for their age group teams. In the last two years, 33 of our players, U-15 onwards, have played international matches. I have already released Amarjeet, the matter ends there. How is this an issue?” he asked.

Bajaj added that he had been losing players for free and it had started to hurt the club financially. “In a few cases, I insisted that the player goes on a loan for two-three years but once they are back, I will charge development fees. Even then we were ticked off, so we let them go,” he said.

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