Players caught in DSA-GFA tussle

NEW DELHI, July 28: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has been roped in to play referee in the ongoing transfer tussle between the Delhi Soccer Association and Goa Football Association.
While on Saturday DSA put forward its appeal to the AIFF to intervene and clear the disputed transfers, GFA has asked the federation whether it should at all consider the transfer requests from DSA, as it had missed the June 20 deadline.
"This is nothing new. In past too, GFA has been clearing transfers post-deadline. We don't know why GFA officials are talking about the deadline this time," DSA secretary NK Bhatia said. "Sometimes, we get the application from the players only on the last day. How are we expected to forward them the same day?" he asked.
The six players from Goa yet to be cleared are Babatunde Oladele, Sohal Akhtar (both for ND Heroes), Ajit Singh, Ram Ishwar Mahato (both for Indian Nationals), Dhirendra Kumar (for Mughals) and Anil Bara (for Simla Youngs). A total of 18 outstation transfers at the DSA are still pending.
The clubs are in a fix. "We have not been able to start the training as we are still waiting for the NOC from DSA and these players are to be our first team members. Only then can we call up the outstation players," rued Indian Nationals FC secretary Rajiv Gupta.
Apart from the two players from Goa, Nationals are also waiting to get clearances for three players from Manipur and one from Rajasthan. "In 2005, Dipankar Choudhury and Vikrant Sharma applied to DSA for transfers on June 20.
Subsequently, the cases were sent to GFA within a couple of days and they sent us the transfer certificates in the next three-four days. No other association has ever made an issue out of this, everyone adjusts for the other," Bhatia added.
"The problem is DSA is still maintaining that it had sent the applications before 20th. Now, either DSA should prove that to AIFF or apologise," GFA secretary Savio Messias said.
And if the deadlock persists, what happens to the players?
"We can't help it, they will have to continue playing in their clubs and wait till the next transfer window," Messias added.
While, Babatunde Oladele, who had signed with the ND Heroes club on June 6 itself, isn't even aware of the ongoing fracas, Sohal Akhtar is hopeful that the matter will be solved amicably as he has no idea what he would do if the things do not work out.