SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad Nov 20: Local players of Bokaro have stopped the trial process of the Jharkhand Football team for Santosh Trophy national football championship scheduled in Odisha next month. They allege partiality in selection of the players.
Open trial of players for the Jharkhand team was under progress at Bokaro Sector-3 Trainees Hostel ground on Friday at around 3 p.m. All of a sudden over two dozen local players reportedly stormed on the ground and forced the organizers of the district football association as well as the Jharkhand football association to cancel the process.
Bokaro’s local players charged that Jharkhand football association officials had already completed the selection of the team for the Santosh Trophy and that the trial was an eyewash for the players as well as the district association.
“The main reason for the protest was that only players of Bokaro SAIL were informed about the trial and players of the local clubs were ignored. We came to know about the trial of the state team in the morning through newspapers. Even the district football association officers did not inform us,” said one of the agitators.
Players of almost all 24 districts including Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Hazaribagh, Dumka, and Deoghar were participating in the trial.
One of the office bearers of Bokaro Football Association (BFA) said that the secretary of Jharkhand State Football Association, Gulab Rabbani, has been informed about the incident. “Now he would decide the new date and place of team trial,” said the office bearer.
A senior office-bearer of the Jharkhand Football Association said that generally the state team is selected on the basis of players’ performance in inter-district football championships.
Since the inter-district football championship in Jharkhand could not be organized due to the Corona pandemic this year, the state association decided to select the team for Santosh Trophy through open trial and Bokaro was given permission to hold the trial.
Santosh Trophy zonal championship is scheduled in Bhubaneswar (Odisha) from December 3. Four states namely Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal and Odisha are participating in it. Jharkhand will be playing with Bihar in the inaugural match on December 3.
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