Over a hundred aspiring football talents and their parents who were to come to the Panampilly Nagar government school here for under-15 selection trials at the Kerala Blasters Residential Academy were left stranded as an internal rift between the Kerala Sports Council erupted. (KSC) and District Sports Council (DSC) on Monday.
The players, who were selected in the preliminary trials held at the Maharaja College ground earlier this month, arrived for the final trials from across the state in the early hours of the day, but the school gates were locked. The security reportedly refused to open the gate claiming that it had specific instructions from the DSC to this effect, denying the children and their parents even toilet facilities.
Kerala Blasters was using the school’s ground for practice and tests at a reported monthly rent of ₹1.20 lakh.
DSC President PV Srinijin, MLA said that the school remained closed as there was no communication from either KSC or Kerala Blasters regarding the trial. “Also, Kerala Blasters owes DSC more than ₹8 lakh for eight months’ rent. We wrote to them to pay, after which they unilaterally pulled out of the agreement with DSC in 2021.
Mr. Srinijin was allegedly criticizing KSC for taking a favorable position towards Kerala Blasters and ignoring DSC’s dues. He also said that DSC would approach the court to recover the dues.
However, KSC President U.K. Sharaf Ali said there were no such dues, and as per the existing agreement the Kerala Blasters were within their rights to use the ground for practice and testing. “There was no need for such objection from DSC since there was an agreement between KSC and Kerala Blasters,” he added.
Mandal corporator Malini Kurup said that after her intervention, the security personnel opened the school gate. “The rift between KSC and DSC led to the unfortunate incident. We learned that the DSC chairman had specifically asked the security guards to keep the gates closed to deny access to the ground for testing. Kerala Blasters officials were not available for comment.
The tests, which were originally scheduled to start around 7.30 am and end around 10.30 am to protect the participants from the scorching heat, were to be conducted under scorching sun and end at 2.30 pm.
Meanwhile, activists of the Yuva Morcha took out a protest march to the DSC office against the alleged action of Mr. Srinijin in denying entry to the participants and their parents to the grounds. The march was led by Vaishakh Raveendran, District President of Yuva Morcha.