Democratic Students’ Alliance Manipur stated that the All Manipur Football Association (AMFA) president ate his words two days after his January 7 statement in front of the media, showing that he had no clue what he was uttering. Maintaining AMFA is not private property, DESAM urged the president to stop pretending to be a protector of players instead of correcting his mistakes
TFM Desk
Putting the record straight on the raging controversy surrounding All Manipur Football Association (AMFA), Democratic Students’ Alliance Manipur (DESAM) on Wednesday accused the AMFA president and general secretary of wrongdoing and said that both were not ashamed of telling strings of lies to hide one lie.
In a statement, DESAM president Leishangthem Lamyamba Meitei demanded their resignation from their respective posts on moral grounds to safeguard AMFA and in the interest of players.
The statement said DESAM had on 7 January 2023 asked AMFA to clear the air on allegations of favouritism and nepotism while recommending the team for I-League 2 for the season 2022-23. However, AMFA responded by saying that they were ready to step down if DESAM produced proof of it, failure of which DESAM officials must resign, it added.
Now it is clear from the fact that members have tendered their resignations from the AMFA executive council one after another and the state government decided not to extend cooperation to the association until the existing crisis is not solved, both the president and general secretary are indulging in unethical practices and wrongdoings, the statement said.
The statement further said the AMFA president ate his words two days after his January 7 statement in front of the media showing that he had no clue what he was uttering. Maintaining the association is not private property, DESAM urged the president to stop pretending to be a protector of players instead of correcting his mistake.
It also said that DESAM had a debate with the AMFA president and general secretary in front of the media persons at the AMFA Office in Lamlong on January 10. During the debate, they accused DESAM of working on KLASA FC’s prodding revealing their mindset that “a thief thinks everybody is a thief”. DESAM’s decision to boycott the president and general secretary is to protect the players’ interest and save AMFA, it added.
Explaining the issue, the statement said AMFA got a mail from the AIFF League Committee on December 8, 2022 to nominate a club based on sporting merit to take part in the 2nd Division League. On that day itself, the AMFA general secretary issued a circular to convene an emergency meeting on December 9 for the nomination of the team for the 2nd Division League. In the emergency meeting, they nominated a team, which was in the 5th place in the 14th State League. As per the resolution of the meeting, KLASA FC, the champion of both the 14th and 15th State leagues, were not nominated for their misconduct in the 15th State League. As the second-placed have surrendered and other teams showed no interest, the 5th-placed club was nominated for the 2nd division I-league, it added.
Press Meet regarding the unfair nomination of the @ILeagueOfficial 2 by the ALL MANIPUR FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION (AMFA).@IndianFootball @NBirenSingh @_AIFF_ pic.twitter.com/OEwMLekRJA
— KLASA-FC (@klasa_fc) January 3, 2023
DESAM threw a volley of questions to AMFA over the issue. It asked why no club was invited to the meeting and when the second-placed team surrendered the nomination as the meeting was held just a day after receiving the mail from AIFF. It further questioned why AMFA did not seek the reasons for surrendering the nomination. AMFA should have looked into the reasons for surrender and addressed them in the interest of players, it added.
It criticised how the team was nominated hastily and maintained that nominating the 5th-placed team was undemocratic.
DESAM further asked why KLASA FC was denied nomination for their misconduct before the 15th state league match as the winner of the 14th State League has to be nominated for the 2nd Division I-league and why AMFA allowed KLASA FC to play further after the incident and lift the champion trophy.
The statement also urged the general public to stand together with DESAM in its movement to protect the interest of players and save AMFA.