Former state footballers miffed at Bengal's absence in FIFA U-17 World Cup committee

KOLKATA: The absence of a single player from West Bengal in the All India Football Federation (AIFF) advisory committee for this year's FIFA Under-17 World Cup to be held across six venues in India has prompted a host of former state footballers to convene a meeting and consider taking legal action.
On Tuesday, several former Bengal players held a meeting and decided to send a letter Praful Patel, the AIFF president, and the Secretary and Sports Ministers from both the Centre and state.If needed, the former players, who feel insulted with the decision, are ready to move the court too.
Former players such as Subhash Bhowmick, Subrata Bhattacharya, Syed Naimuddin, Smaresh Chowdhury, Manoranjan Bhattacharya, Bhaskar Ganguly, Mihir Basu, Prasanta Banerjee, Alok Mukherjee, Sisir Ghosh, Kartik Seth, Keshto Mitra, Prasanta Chakraborty, Dulal Biswas were present at the meeting. Though scheduled to attend, Surajit Sengupta and Biswajit Bhattacharya did not.
In the meeting, these retired footballers discussed how to address the federation on the situation. Manoranjan Bhattacharya and Bhaskar Ganguly have already moved the court against the federation, though that case is still pending.
The former players have targeted Bhaichung Bhutia also. India's most-capped player had been appointed advisor to the AIFF in October 2015 for overall issues of the game, keeping in mind the U-17 World Cup, but he had not been involved since December 2016. Bhutia rubbished reports that he was removed after falling out with the AIFF, saying that his tenure had ended. Kerala football legend IM Vijayan is the other former captain on the committee.
The U-17 World Cup will run from October 6-28 across six venues which will be finalised following the visit of an eight-member FIFA delegation led by FIFA Head of Tournaments Jaime Yarza currently in the country to inspect the stadiums, along with members of the LOC. The U-17 World Cup is the biggest football tournament that India has ever been allotted.