Football defenceless against BJP attack

Already, an ugly structure is looming up in one corner of theground which will provide a platform for politics to rule over football. Then, there are the chairs that will accommodate hundreds of people while the rest of the expected 20,000 will trample upon other parts of the turf. Will six days be enough to patch up the grass in time for the big match?

Even the smoothest politician can’t answer that one. For, he will first have to account for all those empty promises handed down from the VIP dais here about how the venue will be devoted only to football. "Even the state government had promised that this stadium would host only football and nothing else. But just last year, the Delhi Soccer Association super league was interrupted by a farewell party organised by the Municipal Corporation of India (MCD) for one of its retiring staff," says NK Bhatia, general secretary of the Delhi Football Players’ Welfare Association.

Anyway, the DSA officials are once again caught on the wrong foot before a major football fixture as the stadium is owned by the MCD, with itsHorticulture Department being the sanctioning body. The MCD mandarins, in turn, have that familiar jotting on this file too: "pressures from above."