Mohun Bagan Super Giant have opened up on their absence from CFL Kolkata Derby. After fielding the players, East Bengal walked away with all three points at Naihati Stadium on Thursday. However, MBSG have now opened up on the reason behind their absence from the Mohun Bagan vs East Bengal CFL Super Six game.
The MBSG administration have previously refused to play due to fixture overload and “ineffective scheduling by IFA.” Despite their repeated letter voicing the concerns, the IFA persisted in holding the Derby on the specified day, November 30th. Thus invoking displeasure from Mohun Bagan’s management.
” We sent 7 letters to IFA because we wanted to play the game. We feel IFA deliberately took the decision.” Mohun Bagan spokesperson said.
Mohun Bagan cited that their main reason for refusing to play was an overload of fixtures. Mohammedan Sporting won the title with a 2-0 victory over Mohun Bagan on September 21. That was Mohun Bagan’s first game in the Super Six round. Since then, there have been no Bagan matches, but East Bengal has four matches remaining.
However, Juan Ferrando and co have seen a busy year with all the AFC Cup as well ISL matches, Voicing their concerns regarding the same MBSG spokesperson said:
“ We were told all our games will be done by 24th November. On 25th November they called us to tell us that the Derby has been scheduled for 30th. However, we had prior informed that in between 27th November and 27th December, we are playing 8 games, including ISL and AFC Cup.”
“ We wanted to play the Derby and that is why we registered all our players including India Internationals like Anwar Ali, and Anirudh Thapa in our squad. “
The Green Maroon management also voiced their concerns regarding the Stadium With the lack of proper security measures being their foremost. They also wanted to have a full house with some of the most imminent national team players taking the field.
“ We have national team players with us, 14 of them through different ranks, so we need to ensure proper security for them. We need to know about match officials and everything before we field a team. “ he said.
“ Also the Stadium. No one has heard a derby being played at Naihati or Kalyani. A Kolkata Derby deserves to be played around 60.000-70,000 supporters. No tickets were even printed. We could not have taken the field like this, “ he concluded.
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