The standoff between the Kerala Sports Council (KSC) and the District Sports Council (DSC) is still not over and neither party is ready to budge from its declared stand.
A day after the public spat between the two bodies over the selection trials conducted by Kerala Blasters at Panampilly Municipal Government High School on Monday, DSC President PV Srinijin, MLA apologized for the hardships faced by the aspiring football talents and their parents. for the tests. He had courted controversy after he ordered the school gates to be locked, leaving youths and their parents stranded outside for hours. The players also had to attend trials in the scorching heat due to their failure.
Mr. Srinijin, however, insisted that the agreement between KSC and Kerala Blasters over the use of the school ground was illegal. “Instead of tendering and awarding the rights to use the ground to the highest bidder, KSC wrote to Kerala Blasters on March 13 asking the latter to enter into an agreement with it. I had already written to the Sports Minister pointing out the illegality involved,” he said.
Srinijin further claimed that DSC was in the dark about whether Kerala Blasters had paid rent of over ₹8 lakh to KSC. He added that if the payment was made, the DSC has a rightful claim to 75% of it, as decided by the Standing Committee of the KSC.
However, KSC President U.K. Sharaf Ali refuted the allegations, asking if DSC had taken the tender route before striking a deal on its own with Kerala Blasters two years ago. KSC is not required to publicize the clearance of dues by Kerala Blasters, and those who need to know should ask for the same. He said that to his knowledge the Standing Committee had not taken any decision on allotting 75% of the fare revenue to the respective DSCs.
“All these issues can be discussed sitting at a table as both are government bodies and branches of the same tree. The issue is now about the denial of access to land unnecessarily, causing hardship to the children and their parents,” said Mr. Ali.