Avik Roy
Cuttack, May 14: The over-age malady is a virulent disease in Indian sports. The ongoing women’s Sub-junior Football Championship at Cuttack is also no exception to this disease. There are many teams who have allegedly used over-aged footballers and got away scot free. There have been a few complaints here and there – but those are like swatting one single bee amongst a horde.
Sources indicated that quite a few teams have used over-aged footballers and have reaped rich rewards. But then the AIFF and the Football Association of Orissa are not very sure on this issue. Even though the maximum age limit for players in the tournament is 14 years and 364 days, it has been violated to the hilt as both FAO and the AIFF depend on birth and school certificates rather than the dental verification method.
Surprisingly, when asked about this menace, one of the AIFF match commissioners, Anamika Sen had nothing really to say. “We have not yet received any kind of complaint regarding over-age players. We have thoroughly checked the birth certificates of the players. Nothing is amiss,” informed Sen.
Strangely, however, an official from FAO contradicted her. “Three players, two from Madhya Pradesh and one from Jharkhand have already been expelled from the tournament. Failing to produce necessary documents, several other players have also been barred from participating in the tournament for their respective teams. We have submitted a report to AIFF already.” Strange that FAO has filed a report and the AIFF match commissioner is unaware about it.
