AIFF shows green signal to BMFC 17

MUMBAI, AUG 5: The Bengal Mumbai Football Club (BMFC) management and players heaved a sigh of relief with the All India Football Federati...

MUMBAI, AUG 5: The Bengal Mumbai Football Club (BMFC) management and players heaved a sigh of relief with the All India Football Federation (AIFF) giving a clear signal to almost all the 17 players the club had sought from transfers.

It may be recalled that BMFC had applied for the transfers of 17 players after the deadline of April 15, 1999. Three of them Kalyan Choubey, BS Negi and Sourab Goushal were expected to get their inter-state transfers but the future of the other 14 players was in balance.

Today, the AIFF executive committee met in Calcutta and “after three hours of deliberation, they agreed to clear the names of almost all the 17 players. Though Mr Kedarnath Mour, secretary, AIFF informed us about the decision, they would be sending a fax tomorrow confirming it,” explained Shankar Mitra, one of the BMFC directors, while speaking to The Indian Express this evening.

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BMFC, who have played six matches in the Western India Football Association (WIFA) league with just 14 players, are expectedto be in full strength for their next Super Division clash, against Central Railway.

The BMFC camp, which looked gloomy till last evening, with the defeat against Bank of India, having not died down, were expected to sign at least three players from Nagpur. “Nassiri would have visited Nagpur had the AIFF not cleared the names of the players. But now there is no need,” he said.