Hyderabad: Mired in controversy and having tottered through a slew of court cases over a decade, the Andhra Pradesh Football Association is back on its feet again, evident from the reopening of its office at the Lal Bahadur Stadium on Sunday. The new set of APFA officials were a happy lot and promised to work in the right earnest to recapture the lost glory of state football — there used to be 8 to 9 players from Hyderabad in the Indian team back in the 1950s. It surely is a very long road but a start has been made. “We propose to conduct the ‘B’ and ‘C’ division league matches this month. The state team, which recently participated in the South Zone leg of the Santosh Trophy, will take part in another all-India tournament to be held in Orissa this week,” president Md Ali Rafath informed.
In the same vein, he rued the loss caused to footballers in the state due to inactivity, thanks to the deadlock triggered by the two warring factions over the control of the Association. “Every year, there is a 2 per cent reservation in jobs for sportspersons and if you take the 10 years that the APFA has been through 42 civil suits, about 200 footballers have been hit hard,” Mr Rafath said.
Pursued, he said “the boys should file for damages (against those responsible for the mess).”
“Even today, persons from the rival camp have tried to influence Sports Authority officials to skip this function,” Mr Rafath said, reassuring players that the new body “will weed out politics from sport.”
APFA secretary G.P. Palguna paid tribute to the spirit of the footballers. “Despite the trouble in the Association, the game has been kept alive in the state. Last year, three of our boys were shortlisted among the nation’s most promising talent and one of them was picked for a training camp at the iconic Manchester United Football Club. This year too, a player from Hyderabad has been selected for the camp. Two more have been drafted in as standbys,” he said.
Mr Palguna acknowledged the support of SAAP in the endeavour. “Mr Rahul Bojja, VC and MD, has been cooperative,” he said.
The immediate task of the APFA is to build a strong referees base. “Referee courses will be conducted in Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapat-nam and Anantapur so that we have a good pool,” Mr Palguna said.
All this apart, now that the Telangana gazette notification is out, the APFA may be up against a few more challenges.
