In a move that could have an impact on the legal battle between the Chennai Football Association (CFA) and Chennai FC (CFC), Customs FC has withdrawn its protest against CFC’s N.D. Opara. CFA confirmed that it has received Customs’s letter stating the same.
The other case involves CFA and CFC’s Naveen Kumar. Both cases — dealing with the eligibility of the players in question — come up for hearing at the Madras High Court on Tuesday.
Their resolution will help identify the St. Joseph’s senior division champion for the season which concluded in May.
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“We posted the withdrawal letter last Friday. Since we were included in the case as a second party by the court and asked to appear (twice) before it, we felt that we didn’t want to be hassled by the legal issue. So we’ve decided to withdraw,” said a highly placed Customs source.
It is reliably learnt that officials from CFC spoke to Customs about the need to withdraw its protest. “We didn’t try to convince Customs. All we did was tell them the facts of the case. Even before we spoke, they, apparently, had already taken the decision to withdraw,” said the CFC camp.
However, a CFA official argued that Customs can’t withdraw the case at this juncture as such a move is in violation of the constitution.
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“If they (Customs) had wanted to withdraw, they should have done it before the disciplinary committee verdict and not after the decision. What they have done is against the CFA constitution, I believe,” he said.