CALCUTTA, April 13: The All India Football Federation's decision to exempt the national tournament for the Santosh Trophy from the National Players' Coupon System came a bit too late for defending champions Bengal. The state which witnesses the maximum number of football matches every year, will lose the services of many of their key players when they play in the quarter-finals of the 53rd Santosh Trophy at Guwahati later this week.Basudev Mondal, Dipendu Biswas, Abdul Khalique and Amit Das have already exhausted their 45 coupons during the club level tournaments. Bhaichung Bhutia has just two more games left. Debjit Ghosh does not have too many remaining either.
Effectively, half of Bengal's best are ineligible for the tournament.Mohun Bagan contributed most number of players to the national list last year. As many as seven of their players were on the list. Understandably, they ran out of players towards the end of the National League.
East Bengal used their option more judiciously. However, none ofthe clubs planned things beyond their interests. They never really cared about the state and the Santosh Trophy. The Indian Football Association, Bengal's governing body in football, too did not think it fit to curb the clubs from making the national list players play all their quota of matches for the clubs.
With the AIFF not allowing these players for the Santosh Trophy, the IFA finds itself in trouble. No wonder that the Bengal-based association wanted the Santosh Trophy to be exempted from the Coupon System.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
