After receiving permission to participate in the upcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou, China; the Indian men’s football team is under a new controversy. After announcing the Men’s Squad, the All India Football Federation received a lot of criticism for excluding Sunil Chhetri, Sandesh Jhinghan and Gurpreet Singh Sandu as the three above 23 players in the squad.
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Like the Olympics, the football tournament at the Asian Games is an Under-23 tournament which permits three players from above the cut-off age to be part of the squad. Hence, ahead of the squad announcement, several media reports confirmed that Sunil Chhetri, Sandesh Jhinghan and Gurpreet Singh Sandu will be part of the Indian team which hasn’t happened.
Clarifying this decision, AIFF president Kalyan Cahubey, who is also the joint secretary and the acting CEO of the Indian Olympic Association stated that there was an error by the officials who made the presentation for the team’s clearance for the Asiad event to the Sports Ministry. Hence the AIFF and IOA have now requested the Asian Games organisers to provide ‘accreditation’ to Chhetri, Jhingan and Gurpreet by sending a letter.
In an interview with the Times of India, Chaubey said, “When we (AIFF’s coaches, technical officials and support staff members and federation officials) had made a presentation to the sports ministry’s officials requesting for the football teams’ (men and women) clearance for the Asiad, we didn’t realise that their names (Chhetri, Sandhu and Jhingan) were not in the original list of athletes sent to the organisers.”
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“When I realised this (omission), being the head of the organisation (AIFF), I took up the matter personally to ensure that their names were added so that they could get the accreditation. Their names have been sent to the organisers. The people concerned who made the presentation to the ministry should have known about this. As the federation president, I needed to interfere,” he further continued.
India squad for Asia n Games 2023:
Gurmeet Singh (HFC), Prabhsukhan Gill (EBFC), Dheeraj Singh (FCG); Anwar Ali (MBSG), Narender Gahlot (OFC), Akash Mishra (MCFC), Roshan Singh (BFC), Asish Rai (MBSG); Apuia (MCFC), Lalnuntluanga (RKFC), Amarjit (PFC), M Thoiba (OFC), Deepak (MBSG), Jeakson (KBFC), Suresh (BFC); Rahim Ali (CFC), Rohit Danu (BFC), Aniket Jadhav (OFC), Rahul KP (KBFC), Mahesh (EBFC), Sivasakthi (BFC), Vikram (MCFC).
