Football clubs boycott SFA hosted league

GANGTOK, 25 June: The “Football Club Association of Sikkim” today announced its decision to boycott upcoming tournaments being organsied by the Sikkim Football Association. The FCAS and SFA had been in a stand-off for a while now, and the clearly, the issue has boiled over now. FCAS, which had been threatening such stand, today announced that the “unsporting and non responsive” attitude of SFA had driven FCAS to take this decision. Interestingly, even as the announcement comes on the eve of the 2nd Division League, the SFA, after all its government employee members resigned from the association, has put all its activities in “abeyance”.

Be that as it may, the FCAS, which had reiterated its stand at  meeting held on Sunday, today announced the boycott since SFA continued to ignore points raised by it.

FCAS has raised a set of eight points. It wants the U-19 Criteria imposed by the SFA for the 2^nd Div League to be repealed. It also wants SFA to conduct U-14 and U-19 football tournaments separately. It also wants SFA to provide proper basic facilities to the teams during tournaments and matches and also appoint a selection/ spotter committee comprising of ex-footballers, members from SFA and FCAS for every match so that the talent can be spotted and promoted in time.

The FCAS also wants SFA to depute qualified referees during tournaments provide at least to and fro taxi fare to clubs from other districts and teams participating in tournaments in Gangtok and also give Rs. 5,000 per match to the participating teams as an match money. They also want an organizing committee comprising of SFA and FCAS members for every tournament.

These issues were taken up with SFA through official letters, but FCAS did not receive any response from SFA and hence the decision to boycott SFA-organised tournaments.