Bhutia shuts down United Sikkim
KOLKATA: Former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia shut down the United Sikkim Football Club (USFC) on Sunday citing conflict of interest, his decision also highlighting how poorly football is run in the state of one of India’s legends. “This has been a very difficult decision to take but I am an executive committee member of the Sikkim Football Association (SFA) and chairman of the league,” said the former India captain over the phone from Gangtok. “That was leading to a huge conflict of interest.”
The decision was taken after the Sikkim Premier League was abandoned mid-season. USFC were the defending champions but at the bottom of the standings after three rounds. Then Bhutia, who will be 43 in December, registered as a player. “I even scored a goal,” he said. USFC, he said, had played four games.
The league was stopped last week because five clubs, including USFC, backed Sikkim Aakraman Football Club after the SFA banned them for one year. Sikkim Aakraman FC were leading the league and were punished by SFA because its players attacked the referee after a game. The clubs wanted the ban revoked because they felt the SFA had based its decision on false allegations.
Days earlier, the Football Players Association of Sikkim (FPAS) said they would boycott the preparatory camp called for the Santosh Trophy qualifiers. The players said SFA had called a camp at the ‘last-minute’ and when the league was at a crucial stage. Grouped with Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, Sikkim were supposed to start their Santosh Trophy campaign on September 27 and had appointed Nirmal Chhetri as skipper. Chhetri is also president of the FPAS. “We are not playing the Santosh Trophy,” said Bhutia on Sunday.
USFC is the only club from Sikkim to have played the I-League, India’s apex football competition till last season. It was formed in 2004 by Bhutia and his friends Arjun Rai and Sherap Lepcha. Rai is also in the SFA now. USFC qualified for the 2012-13 I-League but were relegated that season. “For some time we were a professional club,” said Bhutia referring to USFC being backed a company from Dubai and having singer Shankar Mahadevan as co-owner.
India central defender Sandesh Jhingan played two seasons for USFC and Komal Thatal, who is with ATK and was part of the under-17 World Cup squad, was with the Snow Lions before being chosen for the India under-14 team. Bhutia said last season they missed out on the I-League second division despite being Sikkim champions because they couldn’t fulfill licensing requirements. USFC have won the state league four times. “Since 2013, we were semi-professional. We didn’t have sponsors and I would spend between ~15-20 lakh each season to run the team. You can say lack of sponsors is one of the reasons for this decision,” he said.
USFC would play tournaments in Bhutan, Nepal, Odisha and in parts of the Northeast, said Bhutia. “This year, we had no invitations,” said Bhutia after USFC joined the long list of I-League clubs who have downed shutters. “We will set up training centres across Sikkim. For now, we have no plans of playing in the under-13 and youth competitions of the I-League,” he said.