Aizawl FC team bus involved in 'slight mishap' en route Cuttack for Federation Cup clash

The team bus of I-League champions Aizawl FC was involved in an accident en route to the Lengpui Airport on Thursday. It is learnt that the bus went off the road in the afternoon and entered into a side drain although fortunately no players were hurt.

A source at the club told Firstpost: “It was a slight mishap. No players were hurt. The players managed to catch their flight. They’re in Cuttack right now.”

The team was on its way to Cuttack to participate in the 2017 Federation Cup, which begins on Sunday and runs until 18 May. The outfit from north east are the top seeds and have been grouped with East Bengal, Churchill Brothers and Chennai City FC in one group, while Mohun Bagan, Bengaluru FC, Shillong Lajong and DSK Shivajians form the other group in the eight-team tournament.

Aizawl had originally put up a picture of the crashed bus on their Instagram account before deleting it.

The incident comes just days after Aizawl scripted an unlikely fairytale by becoming the I-League champions, pipping much-favoured teams like Mohun Bagan and defending champions Bengaluru FC. However, the team then made the headlines when a letter from its management to All India Football Federation (AIFF) became public where the club stated that if the club were relegated to the second division in the restructured Indian Super League (ISL), they would “resort to worldwide protest, sitting demonstrations near AFC/Fifa offices, picketing of AIFF Office, mass hunger striker/fast unto death protest.”