India head coach Stephen Constantine has called the SAFF (South Asian Football Federation) “a disgrace” while the heads of all six visiting national teams turned vocal about their harrowing experiences, on the eve of the SAFF Cup here on Tuesday.
The captains of member nations boycotted a photo-shoot with the trophy at a local heritage site in the evening and the coaches fired a barrage of complaints during the curtain-raiser.
“They’ve invited seven international teams, there are no adequate hotels or training facilities,” said Constantine. “I really don’t know why we are here.”
The 11th edition of the SAFF Cup will open with Nepal taking on Sri Lanka in Group A in Karyavattom.
Apparently, no teams were allowed to train on the main pitch until Tuesday evening.
Constantine, who claims to have waited five-and-a-half hours at the hotel reception before checking in said he’s been to “three or four SAFFs and it’s been absolute chaos every time.”
Nepal head coach Patrick Aussems who, along with his captain, missed the event launch said they were driven to a wrong hotel. “Right now I am not sure if the main stadium is in Trivan-drum or in Delhi,” said Aussems.
Champions Afghani-stan complained of a different problem in addition to the existing issues. “The biggest problem was that people were allowed to record our full training sessions,” said head coach Petar Segrt.
The local organising committee headed by CPM MLA V. Sivankutty washed its hands of the issues, blaming World Sport Group, the SAFF partner. “Everything except the security is handled by WSG,” said Sivankutty. WSG said it would have a grievance redressal meeting with all coaches, but refused to comment further.
