'President, his entourage should play in what's left of I-League': Mohun Bagan, East Bengal slam AIFF

Kolkata: Mohun Bagan and East Bengal on Friday blasted the All India Football Federation (AIFF) for overlooking the I-League clubs after two Goan giants, Sporting Clube de Goa and Salgaocar pulled out of the country’s top tier domestic tournament.

“It’s another nail in the coffin. Now, what’s left to play for in the I-League. The president and his entourage should play the I-League now,” East Bengal secretary Kalyan Majumdar said in his usual sarcastic tone.

The Goan giants on Friday joined a list of discontent clubs – Pune FC, Bharat FC, Royal Wahingdoh – who have dropped out of the I-League with the AIFF keen to make the lucrative franchise based league ISL as the top tier tournament.

The East Bengal top boss, however, did not specify what would be their course of action.

“The AIFF is not clear what they want to do. They are supposed to inform us. You cannot equate the likes of Delhi Dyanamos to East Bengal. You compare the history,” Majumdar said.

Terming it a black day, Mohun Bagan general secretary Anjan Mitra called for an urgent meeting of all the state associations.

“We have to sort out the mess. All the state units must sit together and take steps amicably, if not we should follow a legal route,” he said.

“We (the federation) should not only think of making money. We are keeping a close watch.”

AIFF’s senior vice-president Subrata Datta termed the decision by Salgaocar and Clube to pull-out of I-League as something “really unfortunate”.

“It is a sad decision. I am feeling really bad about it and I would request both the clubs to think about reconsidering their decision.”