Kolkata: Hyderya Sports Kashmir FC, one of the 10 teams to be playing in the I-League qualifiers to begin from October 4th in Bangalore has been disqualified over submitting fake bank guarantee worth 25 lakh rupees by AIFF ( ALL INDIA FOOTBALL FEDERATION)
AIFF had asked every interested club to submit a bank guarantee of the afore stated amount , but only 12 out of 29 clubs who have applied, could clear the club licensing . The only two teams who didn’t make it to the final 10 , were Garhwal FC and PIFA Sports because of the ‘one state, one club ‘ rule, Delhi FC and Kenkre FC had already made it to the tournament finishing above the formers in the respective state leagues.
Sources say that Hyderya Sports Kashmir FC tried to make a duplicate of the bank guarantee that was submitted by Downtown Heroes, who finished third in the Jammu and Kashmir Professional League. Hyderya had finished second in the league while J&K Bank finished top. Since J&K Bank is an institutional team, it couldn’t have applied for the I-League qualifiers and hence, Hyderya and Downtown applied.
After being adjudged of the forgery, a spokesperson from Hyderya told in an attempt to clear the accusations:
“It was through the goodwill of the chairman that we had received the bank guarantee from the Dalgate branch of J&K Bank. The employee who had provided us with the guarantee at that time has been transferred to another branch. Now, the branch manager is saying that ‘I hadn’t provided the bank guarantee and whoever did, I don’t know how he did it.’ We asked them to confirm it with that employee but he said it won’t work and we will have to deposit Rs 25 lakhs,”
“We gave them papers of a land, the evaluation of which is Rs 40 lakhs, but they didn’t accept it. We then gave them documents of a car, the value of which is over Rs 35 lakhs according to us, but they refused to take that as well.
“I don’t know if this a political game. I don’t know where we stand at the moment,” he said.
However, the bank sources state that they had not submitted any related document. With the whole fiasco AIFF had organised an enquiry for the matter , and released a statement on Monday via their official website.
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“Upon receiving several complaints regarding the genuineness of a bank guarantee submitted by Hyderya Sports Kashmir FC, the AIFF initiated an enquiry into the matter.
“The inquiry revealed that the bank guarantee so received was not genuine and that the bank guarantee was never officially issued by the bank named therein. The bank guarantee was one of the mandatory requirements to be eligible to participate in the League, which was to be submitted within a specified timeline. The said timeline now stands elapsed and the mandatory requirement has not been fulfilled by the said club. In light of the same Hyderya’s participation in the League stands withdrawn with immediate effect,” the statement read.
The organization is even allegedly planning to issue an disciplinary action upon the club.
