All India Football Federation (AIFF) President Kalyan Chaubey has urged the Tata group to reconsider its “shocking” decision of withdrawing Jamshedpur FC from the embattled Indian Super League (ISL).
Key Factors
The former India goalkeeper said he has immense respect for the group’s contribution to the sport’s growth through the Tata Football Academy that has been in operation since 1987. Since 1987 till date, nearly 275 or more player have graduated from TFA. However, Mr. “AIFF would be happy if Tata remains in football, especially in senior top tier football. Chaubey too has trained in that facility during his playing days. Mr. Chaubey fondly recalled his association with the Tata Academy as a cadet player. “I learned football through Tata Football Academy.
Chaubey said the AIFF would still hope for a rethink by the legacy corporate house. If an AIFF request or application can change their mind…the AIFF would like to appeal that for the interest of the players and football, Tata should remain in the senior football league,” Chaubey told PTI in an interview. “The AIFF welcomes any suggestion (from them) and is ready to incorporate the suggestions to ensure the best outcome,” he said. The AIFF president said he has faith in Tata group and its decisions cannot be driven by commercial interests. I am also one among them and perhaps Renedy Singh and myself served the longest period in the Tata Football Academy,” he said.
Outlook
The development, which came few months after uncertainty over the ISL’s future following the expiry of the Master Rights Agreement (MRA) between the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and Football Sports Development Ltd (FSDL), marked the end of their nine-year top-flight run. “The current decision has nothing to do with whatever changes have happened in the last one year.
Our decision has been independent of that,” Sundara Ramam told PTI in an exclusive interview. He said Tata Steel had begun reviewing its football strategy last year before deciding that the company should return to its traditional role of identifying and nurturing young talent.
