Coach questions commitment of players
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: There seems to be no end to the ongoing controversy in Ar-Hima FC and the problem has further deepened with the team coach Subrata Bhattacharya coming out openly questioning the commitment of few of his players.
“I got a phone call on the hotel telephone a day after the match against Green Valley, Assam alleging that few of my players are being influenced by other teams to underperform,” Bhattacharya said while speaking exclusively to The Shillong Times from Kolkata on Monday.
The Ar-Hima coach said that he then immediately sent an e-mail to the team president informing about the call.
“I sent the e-mail directly to the president since I am answerable to him,” he said while adding the e-mail was sent two days before the match against United Sikkim.
Bhattacharya pointed out that if he had sent the mail after the United Sikkim match, people could have criticised him for coming out with a false allegation after losing the match.
While making his personal observation on the two drawn matches against Bhawanipore and Green Valley in which Ar-Hima was leading, Bhattacharya said that it was impossible for the games to end in a draw after his side was leading by 3-0 (against Bhawanipore) and 4-1 (against Green Valley, Assam).
He also appealed to the team management to review the video footage of the two matches.
“By looking at the videos footages, one would be able to make out how Ar-Hima has allowed its opponents to come back into the match. In fact, many would be surprised after seeing how the opponent teams have been allowed to score so many easy goals,” the Ar-Hima coach said.
“A team which has scored 18 goals in the tournament cannot ideally allow 12 to be scored against it,” he added.
Bhattacharya said that three teams had benefited from the drawn match against Green Valley.
“Due to draw, Green Valley has seven points which means they still had a chance to qualify, while Aizawl and United Sikkim also benefited,” he said.
“If we had won the two matches we could have easily qualify topped the group with 17 points,” Bhattacharya added.
When asked if he would like to continue as the coach of the team, he said that it is up to the management to decide since his contract ends in May this year.
“On my part, I would accept the extension of the contract with a condition that I should have full authority on the selection of the players,” Bhattacharya concluded.
Earlier, the team management had denied knowledge of any e-mail being sent by the coach who is currently in Kolkata.