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Tata Football Academy in Jamshedpur
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The Jharkhand Football Association has made it mandatory for Tata Football Academy (TFA) cadets to produce no-objection certificates from their respective states.
TFA, which inducted 16 new cadets in its 12th batch last month, has asked its new players to produce their certificates at the earliest to be eligible for playing at state and national-level championships.
Two players from the state M. Rahul Raj and Shashi Prasad Keshri however, have been kept out of the ambit of the new rule as have been the batch of senior TFA cadets honing their skills at the cradle.
Apart from the two Jharkhand players, the remaining cadets in the new batch hail from Manipur (6), Punjab (3), and one each from while Meghalaya, Odisha, Kerala, Haryana and Bengal, all of who have to produce NOC from football bodies of their respective states.
The football academy which was in news recently after a public tiff between senior manager M.R. Bhalla and goal keeping coach Kausar Ahmed however, has been provided only seven forms for obtaining NOCs by the Jharkhand Football Association. The state body has asked the Tata cradle to arrange the remaining on its own.
Sources said that it was the first time that the state soccer body had issued such a strict stricture.
We do not want to find ourselves in an embarrassing position in outstation events. Hence, we have asked for the NOCs, a senior state football association office bearer told The Telegraph.
He added that none other than Jharkhand Football Association secretary Ghulam Rabbani put the rule in place.
A player who does not have clearance from his state will not be eligible to turn out for Jamshedpur in state championships and Jharkhand in national championships. They will also not be able to play in the Jamshedpur Sporting Association football league, which is recognised by the Jharkhand Football Association and hosted in the steel city.
Jharkhand Football Association or the erstwhile Bihar Football Association as it was known then had faced some embarrassing moments back in 1989 when its Jamshedpur team was barred from participating in the final of a tournament in Hyderabad.
We were not allowed to take on our opponents in the final of Motilal Nehru Gold Cup because we had not been able to produce NOCs of some of our outstation players on being asked by the Andhra Pradesh Football Association secretary, recalled a JFA functionary.
Though Rabbani could not be contacted, JFA senior vice-president Ramesh Mehta said that the NOC would benefit both the cradle and the state association.
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