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for the 2nd Div League to be repealed.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.
