AIFF gives a new twist to the Fransa tale EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 27: All India Football Federation (AIFF) secretary Alberto Colaco today gave a new twist to the Fransa Pax-Air India impasse of the National Football League, when he said that Air India were "one of the few respondents" to the federation's call on the issue.
The case on the boil has seen the AIFF unilaterally exonerate Fransa Pax and order a re-play of their match versus Air India which the Goan team boycotted as a protest for refereeing bias in their match against Mahindra United. Air India have said that they will not go for the replay. "A decision has been taken by the AIFF president (Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi), after talks with members of the executive committee, other NFL panels and the clubs," Colaco said today on the sidelines of a function. "Even some of the executives did not respond to this, and it is okay in a democratic set-up. But Air India did respond, and the final decision was taken after considering all this." The indication, it seemed, was that Air India were possibly going back on their word in the case, and that the AIFF case had a rock-plinth. Dasmunsi refused to comment on the issue and passed the buck to Colaco. While not revealing the ace that he possibly has up his sleeve, Colaco went on to assure that the NFL schedule will not be disturbed any more, that the league shall resume on March 10, and that an end was surely in sight on May 16 as planned. He said things will be finalised in the Capital at a top-level meeting of the federation on March 8. In the long-term plans, he said that the plan to acquire "at least 120 days of rights in various stadiums in top soccer-playing cities of the country" was in progress. Mumbai was an immediate case in point, with the Cooperage being totally unfit. "We will not be taking over stadiums totally, but negotiating usage rights for at least 120 days a year. In this, linked with FIFA's 'Go for Goal' project, we will try to add value with infrastructure inputs like floodlights, dressing rooms etc. "The Mumbai target could be the Brabourne, obviously the Ambedkar in Delhi, the Rabindra Sarovar Stadium in Kolkata and so on," Colaco said. ~(^^)~ Avelino
