The Wadhawan Group-owned Indian Super League (ISL) side FC Pune City have reached a settlement with striker Iain Hume over pending payments, Goal can confirm.
The club have been struggling financially throughout the fifth season of ISL and payments to several players and members of the coaching staff were delayed. Earlier Goal had reported that club chairman Dheeraj Wadhawan had written a letter to all the players and support staff reassuring them that all their dues will be cleared in tranches.
He had promised that payments to the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and the coaching staff will be made first and all the coaches' salaries and a month's wages of players will be cleared by June 10, 2019.
However, Goal has learnt that striker Iain Hume wrote a letter to the AIFF over pending payments. The AIFF duly handed the issue to the Player Status Committee who called a meeting to resolve the same.
Sources have confirmed that a lawyer, representing FC Pune City, attended the meeting of the Player Status Committee of the AIFF. The parties came to an amicable solution and the club promised to pay the Canadian striker's arrears in two installments - the first one by June 15th and the final one by July 15th.
When Goal reached out to FC Pune City CEO Gaurav Modwel, he said, "We have told all our players that we will pay them on a schedule which we have shared with them. The situation with Hume is similar. The schedule for him is a little different, it is not the same as for other players. We will pay off all the dues based on that."
The Stallions initially considered releasing their first team squad at the end of the fifth season of ISL and not playing the Super Cup. But they made a u-turn, asking the players to report for training ahead of the Super Cup.
They finished seventh in the league and were knocked out of the Super Cup by I-League champions Chennai City.
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