Kolkata: East Bengal officials puts the ball in the court of IFA regarding CFL derby after Mohub Bagan officials had a meeting with IFA on Tuesday. IFA secretary Utpal Ganguly had a meeting with East Bengal official Debabrata Sarkar today regarding the derby.
Debabrata Sarkar indirectly proposes a condition to play the CFL derby as East Bengal’s five players like Arnab Mondal, Koushik Sarkar, Bikash Jairu, Narayan Das and Md. Rafique will be unavailable due to the the national duties. Mr. Sarkar had requested IFA secretary Utpal Ganguly to consider this situation and schedule the derby date.
The FIFA friendly between India and Puerto Rico is slated to be held on 3rd Sept in Mumbai, where these players may be playing and as this is considered to be a FIFA friendly, the clubs had to release their players.
Meanwhile, IFA will be mailing a letter to the AIFF and IMG-R requesting them not to take any players from East Bengal and Mohun Bagan till the derby is held. As soon as the derby gets over, IFA has confirmed that the two clubs will release all the players slated to play in the ISL for their respective franchises.