Train berths unavailable, parents to pay for air travel of Chandigarh girls’ football team

Deepankar Sharda

Chandigarh, July 25

The parents of local girls’ football team players have decided to bear their air travel expenses as the Chandigarh Football Association (CFA) officials failed to get train seats reserved for all players. They are scheduled to take part in the Junior Girls’ National Football Championship (Tier 2) in Belgaum (Karnataka) on July 29. The parents have decided to chip-in money for sending the local girls’ team to Belgaum by air.

In the morning, the CFA officials had announced that they were withdrawing from the tournament owing to the unavailability of train reservation. Some well-off parents will be bearing the travel expenses of the players coming from poor families and also of a few members of the support staff.

The girls were to leave for Belgaum via New Delhi (Hazrat Nizamuddin) by the Goa Express at 3.15 pm today. At 4.20 am, when the players were getting ready to reach the local railway station to board a train to Hazrat Nizamuddin, the CFA officials informed their parents about their decision to withdraw from the tournament.

The parents met the CFA officials at the Sector 46 sports complex in the evening and told them that they could bear the expenses on the team’s travel to Belgaum by air.

“We tried but got only four reserved seats. As per the Indian Railways’ policy, our players cannot travel while their names are still on the waiting list. So, it was decided to withdraw from the national event,” said Rakesh Bakshi, Administrative Head, CFA. “By evening, the parents agreed to send the team at their own expense. On the CFA’s part, we will hand them over Rs 60,000, the amount reimbursed by the Railways. I will be accompanying the team as manager and the cost of my own travel. However, the parents will take care of the expenses on the travel of other members of the support staff,” he added.

The team attended a coaching camp before getting selected for the championship.

The team is scheduled to play matches against Karnataka (July 29), Jammu and Kashmir (July 31), Uttar Pradesh (August 2) and Andaman & Nicobar (August 4). They will now leave for the national capital at 1 am on Friday and board a flight in the evening. The air ticket will cost Rs 6,800 (one way) each, said an official.

Not the first time

In 2019, the Chandigarh Football Association had failed to send the team to the Sub-Junior Girls’ National Football Championship to be held in Cuttack after failing to get train reservation. The team was lucky to have the support of some individuals who paid for their travel.

Boys’ team lucky

The local boys’ junior team left for Chhattisgarh after getting seat reservation on Thursday morning. The team is scheduled to take part in the Junior Boy’s National Football Championship (Tier 1) in Narainpur, Chhattisgarh.