The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Sunday took strong exception to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) excluding football from the forthcoming Asian Games at Jakarta.
In a strongly-worded statement, the AIFF said the IOA’s decision was nothing short of “myopic vision”.
High standards
The AIFF, aware of the IOA setting high qualification standards for participating in the Asian Games, had hoped for a change of heart, but in vain.
“Despite explaining to the IOA that football, as a global sport, needs to be looked at differently, and after having explained the tremendous success that Indian football has achieved in the last three years, the IOA chose not to clear Indian Football teams for the forthcoming Asian Games,” AIFF said.
The football federation pointed out a jump in FIFA Rankings (from 173 to 97) and qualification to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup in UAE. The AIFF also included the successful hosting of the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup and various grassroots and youth developmental programmes undertaken to push its case.
“However, disregarding all facts, the IOA chose to stick to its original stance of sending teams ranked between 1-8...,” it said.
“IOA’s stance and myopic view comes in sharp contrast to the support of both the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Sports Authority of India, both of whom have been hugely supportive of Indian football,” the AIFF added.
