U-17 women’s football coach faces charge of ‘misconduct’

KOLKATA: An assistant coach of the India under-17 women’s football team readying for the World Cup this year has been suspended pending investigation after allegations of misconduct with a player surfaced during the team’s ongoing trip to Norway. The World Cup will be held in India from October 11-30.

The coach, who is a former India player, has returned to Goa, and will be called before an internal disciplinary board of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), now under a committee of administrators (COA), next week.

AIFF officials, who asked not to be named, said that the issue came to light when the player, who is a minor, was not in her room for three successive nights.

Manager Hilda Gurung and staff in the squad, coached by Swede Thomas Dennerby, searched rooms to see if she was with any other team mate. But she could not be traced.

The assistant coach, too, said the player was not in her room, leading to a harried staff contemplating filing a missing person’s complaint. Not long after, however, the player was spotted leaving the assistant coach’s room. A PTI report said it was Dennerby who informed AIFF about the assistant coach’s behaviour. Given that this happened on a trip funded by the Union government, the Sports Authority of India, too, has been informed by COA, PTI added.

State football associations, in a joint media release, have called for an FIR against the assistant coach on charges of serious misconduct with a minor, a life ban, and revoking his coaching badges.

“An event of misconduct has been reported in the U-17 women’s team, currently on an exposure tour to Europe. The AIFF follows a zero-tolerance policy on indiscipline. As an initial action, the Federation has provisionally suspended the individual pending further investigation,” a statement from the COA said on Thursday.