Bhaichung Bhutia

Kolkata, Jan 08: As the Indian captain Bhaichung Bhutia was recovering from his injury and was training hard to back in national team, All India Football Federation (AIFF) almost was trying to delete the Indian megastar from squad of AFC Asian Cup, which is his prime tournament of his career. But it was all fine, when the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) gave positive response to a desperate request from AIFF to re-register the India skipper as a player for the Asian Cup, which already began in Doha on Friday. India will kick off their tournament against Australia on Monday.

An AIFF official said, “India’s superstar footballer and captain have been registered both as a player and official in the list, which was submitted to the AFC on Tuesday. This was done because we wanted him to stay with the squad until he gets recovered from his right calf injury.” But shockingly at a meeting with AFC officials in Doha on Thursday, India came to know about the rules of tournament that any player registered as an official will be atomically disqualified being a player in the tournament. That means Bhutia would not have been able to play the tournament even he gets fit.

India has a schedule of playing against Bahrain on Jan 14, while South Korea four days later. “We never know about such existing rules. We registered Bhutia as a player and official because even the Indian star did not know if he will be fully 100 percent fit. We wanted him to be the part of the squad even if he gets failed to get fit.” After getting the information that the 34 year old Bhutia would not be playing the tournament, AIFF on Friday spent the whole day to re-register Bhutia as a player.

Tags: AFC Asian Cup 2011, AIFF, All India Football Federation, Bhaichung Bhutia, Football, India, Indian Football, Indian Sports, Sports India