Santosh Trophy: AIFF may allow Jharkhand's participation after state government intervention

Ranchi: The Jharkhand Football Association (JFA) may finally be able to send football teams for the upcoming Santosh Trophy and National Women’s Championships following intervention from the state government. The Chief Minister’s Office had intervened following the All India Football Federation’s ruling on Monday that no team would be allowed from the faction-ridden JFA after two groups sent four teams for the two tournaments. “The AIFF team has agreed to conduct fresh trials of the four teams to pick the sides for the Santosh Trophy and National Women’s Championships,” Khijri MLA Rajesh Kachhap, who has intervened in the matter after the internal fighting came to light, told PTI. “Now the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs is directly looking into the matter with the AIFF. We don’t want to deprive the talented footballers of the state,” he said. “For five years, football activities had stopped in the state despite all our support.” The women’s trial will be held on Wednesday, followed by the men’s trial for the Santosh Trophy, JFA president Nazam Ansari said. “We have followed the three-stage process to pick the team but the rival group (led by secretary Ghulam Rabbani) have only a handful of players of the state, while the rest are from the Northeast,” Ansari said. “Government had to step in and issued a notice. We are hopeful of reaching a solution. We want the state players to get their dues as we have enough talents available in our state,” he added. Blaming the AIFF for the mess, he said: “They created two IDs – one general email in the name of JFA and another in the name of Rabbani – that created all the confusion. “Previously all data were being sent from the common ID but suddenly on 14 November evening the ID shifted to Rabbani’s and the team too changed.” Rabbani, on the other hand, said the AIFF rejected all the entries sent by JFA owing to the prevailing scenario in the state association. “The team for the national championship was the responsibility of the secretary,” he said. “Under my guidance, Jharkhand has produced several national and international players, including six women players from Jharkhand were in national camp preparing for the upcoming AFC Cup (next year in India),” he claimed. Earlier on Monday, the AIFF shot off a letter to the JFA president and secretary, telling them that no team from the state will be allowed to take part in the Santosh Trophy and National Women’s Championships. The Jharkhand teams for the Santosh Trophy and women’s championship are scheduled to report on November 25 and November 28 respectively. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.