Women’s Football team was forced to withdraw from the championship citing bubble breach, and now the coach, a swedish trainer Thomas Dennerby has accused about unprofessional on the part of the federation.
In a interaction, the 62-year-old coach Thomas Dennerby said the continental body was ‘unprofessional’ in the manner in which the bio-bubble was handled, accused them of a delay in informing about the positive cases at the Indian team hotel and being unwilling to engage in a ‘solution-oriented’ discussion.
On Sunday, India were forced to withdraw from the Asian Cup after the team could not name at least 13 players, mandatory as per rules, for their Group A match against Chinese Taipei following a Covid-19 outbreak within the squad. As on Wednesday, Dennerby said 19 players and six officials were infected.
Speaking from his hotel room in Navi Mumbai, where the entire team is in isolation, Dennerby said the team and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) could’ve done nothing more in terms of taking precautions. “Honestly, we are not happy with the AFC’s tournament organisation and lack of solution. In one way, it destroyed our dreams,” he said.
The 12-nation competition is being held across three venues in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune. A Local Organising Committee was managing the on-ground logistics in the build-up to the tournament but it is learnt that the team hotels were chosen by the AFC following an inspection and the bio-bubble protocols, too, were set by them.
Dennerby gave a day-by-day report of the team’s activities from the time they landed in Mumbai on January 13. The team had taken a commercial flight into Mumbai from Kochi.
The blame by the Indian Professional coach would be heard till long and this pandemic has costed us a fair chance to showcase the talent at an International forum.
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