Kolkata: The FIFA and AFC representatives will be touching down to the city of Joy on September 13. They would be holding a meeting with IFA Secretary Utpal Ganguly at the Grand Hotel and on the very next day would be paying a visit to the easteemed clubs of the city, namely Mohun Bagan, Mohammedan Sporting and East Bengal and hold a meeting there too.
The main agenda of the meeting would be to resolve the issues concerning to the claims made by Mohun Bagan and East Bengal in playing in the top league of the country and as a result a last moment meeting was held with Utpal Ganguly by the club officials. East Bengal was represented by Debabrata Sarkar, Mohun Bagan by Debasish Dutta and Mohammedan Sporting by Mohammad Qamaruddin.
Yesterday after the game Biswajit Bhattacharya, the Mohammedan Coach accused of low standard refereeing and accused them of being incompetent to which Utpal Ganguly said, “It is highly unfortunate that former players like Bhattacharya are claiming things like this which is totally unexpected from him. Senior Footballers should be aware of the words which they speak. Nowadays it has become a trend of big teams blaming others like referees, pitch conditions or weather conditions.”
On being questioned about the fixing allegations in the Tollygaunge and Rainbow match, to which Ganguly said, “The TV footage of the game from the channel which was telecasting the game has been sent to the federation and now the entire decision rests upon them”
“Like we said before, we want to play in the top tier league of the country and we will put forward the same question to the FIFA and AFC representatives. I hope they will respond to our requests and the way the three teams have joined together is a great sign of unity” said Mohun Bagan Official Debasish Dutta.
“East Bengal Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan have united together to save the Bengal Football and we will put forward our claims to the FIFA and AFC representatives. In the past people would consider Indian football to be Bengal football and we will explain the same thing to them. If they agree it is well and good if not we will go for a much bigger protest as we have been advised by the Chief Minister of the state not to bow down to anyone” said East Bengal official, Debabrata Sarkar.