No to Srinagar for hosting Santosh Trophy: AIFF JK Football Association blames Sports Council

Abid GowharSrinagar/ Aug 12/ Most awful for the valley football fraternity that All India Football Federation (AIFF) has of late decided not to hold the forthcoming 61st Santosh Trophy Football tournament in Srinagar as revealed in a letter addressed to J&K Football Association (JKFA) vide AIFF/Santosh/3730 dated Aug. 11,2006. The decision regarding the change of venue was taken in a Federation meeting yesterday after a month long uncertainty over the issue. The mega national football event is now allotted to Gurgaon Faridabad (Haryana) and is scheduled to start from Sept.14,2006.The AIFF General Secretary, Mr Alberto Colaco in the letter states that a final decision on the Santosh Trophy venue was taken after the AIFF president, Mr P R Dasmunshi discussed various matters with state Chief minister Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad concerning the lack of proper infrastructure and delay in the preparations for the same in Srinagar.Painful for thousands of valley football lovers and discouraging for JKFA to see AIFF reverting back on its decision of holding the mega National Football in Srinagar after 28 years.It had made blissful news for valley footballers in April this year when AIFF nominated Srinagar to host the prestigious mega event .JKFA was seen highly pleased to start their preparations and had several meetings with SSC authorities. Meanwhile the State Chief Minister had also shown his keen interest and commitment to allot Rs1.10 Crore for up gradation, repairs and renovation of all the football grounds in Srinagar. He had several meetings with State Sports Council (SSC) and JKFA in this regard. But all efforts to host the mega event lastly went futile due to many reasons behind. Lack of coordination between JKFA and SSC, delay in starting preparatory construction work, poor conviction of the concerned authorities, improper and unprofessional sports culture and prevailing security concerns of the valley. More than that AIFF had pressures from two football-rich states Goa and Begal, not to conduct the tournament in Srinagar due to several tourists attacks this summer.When asked to secretary JKFA, Mr. Bashir Malik that what and where went wrong in this matter, he put all blames in this regard to SSC stating that since April this year, we pursued them regularly with several demands and suggestions, but they were unmoved till last month. “We are very sorry that due to sheer negligence of SSC, thousands of football lovers of the valley will not be able to witness the mega football event this year for which they were anxiously waiting for” Mr. Malik added that although it is sad to lose a golden opportunity in hosting the event, JKFA is highly thankful to the Chief Minister Mr. Azad that he had showed his personal interests in the most popular game of the valley and allotted sufficient funds to SSC in order to meet all requirements including building of infrastructure for the same. Regarding lack of coordination with SSC, he stated that although we had several meetings with the Secretary SSC, but he could not convince us regarding his plans to deal with the situation. “His every initiative was in delay and without taking JKFA in to confidence, he allotted the construction work of changing rooms to an agency which is working in tortoise pace and that too with non-technicality” he added. Director youth Services and Sports Mr.Ravinder Gupta, who is also Secretary J&K Sports Council denied any misunderstanding or conflict with JKFA and said that the preparations were under process when an AIFF official made a visit here and we were optimistic about the completion of whole pending work till Sept. this year. However he says that we shall be better prepared to host the event next year. Pertinent Earlier Mr. Colaco had visited Srinagar to inspect the venues and submit a report to the federation for final declaration of the venue. The inspection report was tabled before a meeting and a copy of the same sent to JKFA. The report vide AIFF /santosh/3509 dated Aug. 2,2006 reveals that Bakshi Stadium, the main playing venue is not facilitated with sufficient changing rooms and lot of renovation is required for Stands and bothrooms. Amarsingh college ground requires lot of improvement, has no fencing and at least two dressing rooms and two referee rooms are required to conduct any National level tournament over there. Pertinent that Bakshi stadium Srinagar had hosted the 35th Santosh Trophy in 1978 when Goa lifted the trophy by beating Bengal by 2-0 and the same ground also witness Federation Cup in 1984. Santosh Trophy is considered to be as prestigious National level tournament in Football as Ranji or Dilip Trophy is for Cricket. Started in 1941 in the memory of late Maharaja Sir Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhary of Santosh (now in Bangladesh),it is being held every year in different parts of the country and carries a high craze in the whole football fraternity. Last year the trophy was played in Kochi when Goa beat Maharashtra in the finals.