On Saturday, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) accused that Indian Olympic Association (IOA) lacked vision and competence after the national team for football was not cleared by IOA for participation in the approaching Asian Games in Indonesia.
In their statement, AIFF said, “It’s clear the IOA lacks the vision and competence to understand that football is a global sport played by 212 countries and that the top 5 teams in Asia play in the FIFA World Cup where the level of competition is far superior to the Asian Games.”
Since 1994, this will the first time that an Indian team won't participate in football at the Asian Games, where the U-23 competition will commence with three over-age players being permitted. The Blue Tigers were denied an opportunity since they are currently ranked 14 in Asia and as per IOA regulations, only the national teams ranked between 1-8 at the continental level are cleared for the game.
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The team displayed some brilliant performances in international matches lately and had qualified for the Asia Cup after an eight-year break, since their last match in 2011.
In fact, the premier football competition in Asia is the AFC Asian Cup where India has qualified after eight years. IOA’s stance and myopic view comes in sharp contrast to the support of both the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Sports Authority of India, both of whom who have been hugely supportive of Indian Football and recognised AIFF’s efforts in the last three years,” AIFF added.
AIFF President Praful Patel had reportedly spoken to IOA President Narinder Batra, secretary-general Rajeev Mehta and Chairman of the Preparation Committee for Asian Games Lalit Bhanot about the team’s recent performance and had also sent them a letter regarding the same. But IOA turned a blind eye to the Indian football team and were fixed on their regulation to send teams ranked between 1-8.
Commenting over the issue, Aditya Thackeray tweeted:
The AIFF accused IOA by saying that they never bothered to discuss even once with AIFF about the plans for developing football in the country.