Book fair plays havoc with National Football League

India Sports
Book fair plays havoc with National Football League
By IANS, Feb 17, 2007 - 4:43:32 PM

Kolkata, Feb 17 - Caught in the chaos of a book fair facilitated by West Bengal Sports Minister Subhas Chakraborty, the teams participating in the National Football League - have been forced to swing like a pendulum between two stadiums 25 km apart.

The NFL is being played at the Yuba Bharati Krirangan -, better known as Salt Lake Stadium, where a book fair is also under way. This put the authorities in a dilemma for Saturday's tournament opener between Mohammedan Sporting and Mahindra United and the match was shifted to the Barasat Stadium in North 24 Parganas.

The decision was taken late Friday - and created its own set of problems. Now, Zee Sports, the official broadcaster, is in a fix about shifting its equipment overnight between Barasat and YBK, where Mohun Bagan and Dempo play on Sunday.

Then, there is the question of the tickets that were printed for the tournament opener that mention YBK as the venue.

Earlier, on Thursday night, All India Football Federation - President Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi had said the Sporting-Mahindra tie would be played at YBK, but on Friday the match was shifted to Barasat. The YBK was also listed for practice for a short time on Friday but this was cancelled.

The Mahindra team went to YBK only to be sent packing. After that, both the teams practised alongside at the Central Park.

Miffed at this treatment, Mahindra manager Henry Menezes said: 'We are here to do a job and we are concentrating on it. If we were told that the match would be held in Barasat we would have prepared ourselves suitably.'

This is not the end of the story. The book fair is scheduled to end Feb 23 but is likely to be extended by five days.

This has put a question mark over the Mohan Bagan-Mohammedan Sporting match scheduled for Feb 23 at YBK and the tie is likely to be shifted out of the city.

The venue of Mohun Bagan-East Bengal tie scheduled for YBK on Feb 27 is also likely to be shifted to a yet to be disclosed location. The state sports ministry has put the ground beyond access because of an India-Bangladesh football match to be held there.