KOLKATA: The player status committee of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has penalized East Bengal from any transfer activity until next year in the I-League on the count of illegally approaching a player named Sukhdev Singh.
The club has been found guilty of violating the provisions of Annexure III Clause 2 of the AIFF Player Status Regulations. Hence, the committee imposed upon Kingfisher East Bengal FC, “a complete prohibition on registering any new player, until the expiry of the second transfer window following the date on which the breach became effective, being till the end of the first transfer window in the year 2019, under the provisions of Article 21(2) of the AIFF Players’ Status Regulations.”, the governing body’s press release stated.
Singh’s now former club, Minerva Punjab had filed a complaint with the AIFF over the issue in April this year. He was under a 2-year contract until May 2019 with Punjab before the controversy gained mileage.
At present, the defender features in East Bengal’s arch-rivals, Mohun Bagan’s squad. However, the AIFF has penalized him as well to not feature in any competitive match for Bagan for the next 4 months starting 15 September and ordered him to pay Rs. 50,000 to Minerva Punjab and an additional Rs. 50,000 as fine.
It said that Singh and East Bengal were in violation of the provision, “A club intending to conclude a contract with a professional must inform the player’s current club in writing before entering into negotiations with him. A professional shall only be free to conclude a contract with another club if his contract with his present club has expired or is due to expire within six months. Any breach of this provision shall be subject to appropriate sanctions.”
Minerva Punjab co-owner Heena Singh was quoted as saying to Indian Express: “East Bengal approached a couple of Minerva players in April and forced them to hurriedly sign something which they claimed as ‘draft contract’ to show that the players are interested in joining East Bengal. They got the players to agree in that way and did not come to us to settle on a transfer fee.
“In Sukhdev’s case, they dealt directly with the agent instead of us. The player was on a two-year contract with us and the only way they could approached was through us. They refuted when we tried to get into an agreement and in the meanwhile, an offer from Mohun Bagan was tabled. We discussed it with AIFF and put everything on record before going ahead with Mohun Bagan.”
“There is an appeal process in the system. We will discuss internally what needs to be done and will act accordingly,” CEO of East Bengal FC, Sanjit Sen said to the newspaper.
The controversy doesn’t put East Bengal in good light following a much-needed investment from Quess Corp Ltd., which took over the ownership mandate of the club recently.
