AFC and AIFF have different versions over India losing the Asian Champions League slot

EXCLUSIVE

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) are poles apart with their account as to why did India lose out on a berth in the Asian Champions League (ACL) this season.

For the last three seasons, the I-League champions avail an opportunity to participate in the ACL play-off with last year Dempo SC facing Qatar’s Al Sadd, who turned out as the eventual winners of the competition.

However Salgaocar SC wouldn’t get their shot in the ACL play-off but instead participate in the prestigious competition’s poorer cousin, namely the AFC Cup along with East Bengal.

Last month, the Goan side accused those in power for failing to submit the ‘essential documents’ which led to India missing out on an important slot in the ACL.

In the official minutes of the meeting held by the governing body for football in the continent back in November, the AFC have put the blame solely on India for being easygoing in their attitude towards a serious task.

"Mr.Sunando Dhar (IND) verified with the Administration on the missing slots for India as they had a few slots last year to which Mr. (Tokuaki) Suzuki (AFC Competitions Director) explained that India did not submit documents which implied that India had shown no interest in the AFC Champions League next edition. Mr.Sunando Dhar replied he would return to re-check on the submission in that regard," the document read.

We Have Done What Was Needed - AIFF

Meanwhile, the AIFF have denied the claims made by the AFC by stating that they had indeed done the needful but surprisingly hadn’t received any communication from the concerned authorities until the meeting in Kuala Lumpur where the new slots of the ACL were announced on November 25.

“On my return from Malaysia I did check the documents and found out that Mr. Anil Kamat, AGS Competitions, AIFF had actually replied back to AFC on 31st May (within the deadline) mentioning that AIFF would want to retain the same slots that had been allocated by AFC for the last few years i.e. the I-League winner to play in the ACL play-offs and the Federation Cup winner to play directly in the AFC Cup,” informed Dhar.

“Unfortunately we never got any response from AFC on this till we went to KL for the meeting in November,” he added.

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