East Bengal slam AIFF for not promoting Fed Cup
September 16th, 2011 - 12:15 am ICT by IANSKolkata, Sep 15 (IANS) City based East Bengal football club Thursday criticised the sport’s governing body All India Football Federation (AIFF) for its failure to promote its premier tournament Federation Cup with the main round beginning Saturday.
The matches in the main phase will be played here and Pune.
Club general secretary Kalyan Majumdar lamented that people were hardly aware of such an important tournament which gives an opportunity for the winner to play at the international level.
He also criticised the scheduling of the games saying it was physically taxing on the players. As per the schedule, the teams qualifying for the final will have to play five games in the main round in less than two weeks.
Taking a dig at the organisers, Majumdar said: “The matches will be shown by a channel that does not have a reach outside (West) Bengal. I am not sure whether they (the AIFF) want the football followers to watch the matches.”
He also said the prize money of Rs. 25 lakh would not make even a player’s salary.
East Bengal meet Mohammedan Sporting Saturday in a group encounter. Dempo and Pune FC are the other sides in the group.
The final will be played Sept 29 with the winner getting a chance to play in the AFC cup.
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Tags: afc cup, aiff, criticised, dempo, east bengal football club, fed cup, federation cup, five games, football federation, general secretary, governing body, kalyan, kolkata, lakh, majumdar, mohammedan, play five, prize money, pune, west bengal