Aizawl FC U-15 boys travel sitting next to train toilets
The reigning national football champions of India, Aizawl FC, have been left red-faced after pictures of the club’s U-15 team sitting on a train floor during a journey from Kolkata to Guwahati made the rounds on social media on Sunday.
The incident took place when the team was returning from Goa after losing to eventual champions Minerva Punjab FC in the semi-finals of the Nike Premier Cup, the national U-15 competition.
On their way back home, the team boarded a train from Goa to Kolkata, before embarking on a separate train to Guwahati in Kolkata.
This train ride, however, did not go smoothly as the club failed to procure confirmed tickets for all players.
Other passengers travelling in the train subsequently took to social media to share pictures of some of the young players sitting on the floor near the toilets.
The incident drew sharp criticism from many fans on Twitter and Facebook.
Reacting to the whole episode, club president Robert Royte claimed he wasn’t aware of the players’ plight at the time of their journey.
“What happened was really unfortunate. I have been told that they were just waiting for a little over half-an-hour for allocation of their seats. The pictures circulating on social media were clicked just at the start of their journey. They had threetier AC tickets, most of which were confirmed. The TTE (train ticket examiner) had asked them to wait for some time before he could settle them,” he said.
SEMI-FINAL LOSS
Royte added that he had promised the team direct flight tickets from Kolkata to Aizawl had they won the U-15 tournament, but after their semi-final defeat, they rescheduled their planned journey back home.
“I promised them to (book their) travel from Kolkata to Aizawl if they became champions of the U-15 I-League, and they were quite a determined side also. But the semi-final against Minerva ended as a draw and they lost in the tie-breakers. Because of that, they had to reschedule their travel. They were thinking they would be travelling by air from Kolkata to Aizawl,” he added.
Kushal Das, general secretary of the All India Football Federation, responded saying the onus of booking tickets for players lies with the clubs.
“The AIFF gives travelling allowance to all teams and the tickets are booked by the clubs/ teams themselves. AIFF does not book tickets directly,” he stated.