Sudeep Pakrashi:
Sporting Club Bengaluru might also move to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), like Inter Kashi, if the team are ultimately relegated from the 2024-25 I-League.
The Appeal Committee of the All India Football Federation has issued a stay order on the announcement of relegation for SC Bengaluru and Delhi FC from the I-League on Wednesday.
Kishore S. Reddy, co-founder of the team revealed while speaking to Parallel Sports, “This is a different issue from the other complaints lodged to the AIFF disciplinary committee. Namdhari FC played an ‘illegal’ footballer in their match against us and the I-League rule-book clearly says that we deserve three points from the match.”
SC Bengaluru finished with 21 points from 22 matches in the League 2024-25. With three points from the match against Namdhari FC, the team will come out of the relegation with 24 points while Aizawl FC which finished with 23 points will be relegated.
Kishore is also surprised by the decision of the AIFF Disciplinary Committee regarding the issue. “We appealed to the Disciplinary Committee first and there, the committee in its decision only cautioned Namdhari FC to restrain them from doing a similar act of fielding an ‘illegal’ footballer in the future! How can a Disciplinary Committee take such a decision of cautioning only instead of following the I-League rule book?”
Kishore sounded disappointed also about the AIFF’s lackluster attitude saying, “The clubs like us who are coming to Indian football with passion and formidable investments will think twice before joining Indian football in the future.”
