Country’s several leading footballers, like Shouvik Chakrabarty and Sandesh Jinghan, and even foreigners like Adrian Luna, expressing their frustration, have urged the country’s football ruling body to do the best that can resume ISL.
Now, two more leading footballers of the country Sunil Chhetri and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu have added the list. Both the footballers, frustrated by the ongoing stalemate in Indian football, have posted an impassioned plea on social media urging “those involved in running our sport in the country, to do whatever it takes to get the football season underway”.
The ISL typically begins in September. But right now, there is no clarity on when it will begin, with the league already having missed two months of its regular calendar. This has led to some teams suspending operations. Many top footballers have been without competitive football for months. There are reports that even training schedules and salary payments have been disrupted.
“We, professional footballers who play in the Indian Super League, are coming together to make a plea and, more importantly, to send the message that we stand united in our efforts to get the Indian Super League season underway. To put it simply, we want to play and now,” footballers like Chhetri and Sandhu wrote in a joint statement they posted on their social media handles. Our anger, frustration and distress has now been replaced by desperation. Desperation to play the game we love, in front of people who mean everything to us, our families, our fans. This is a plea to all those involved in running our sport in the country, to do whatever it takes to get the football season underway. India needs its competitive football now more than ever,” the statement read.
Sharing the statement on his Instagram handle, Cheetri wrote: “We are all standing shoulder to shoulder, willing to do whatever it takes to resurrect the sport we love.”
Sandhu’s message read, “We find ourselves in the midst of our hardest challenge yet. And yet, all we can do at this point is plead.”
