The Hindu : Sport / Football : Unique protest by DSA players and officials

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 20, 2006

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Sport - Football

Unique protest by DSA players and officials

NEW DELHI: In a unique protest, footballers brought traffic to a halt at the busy Bahadurshah Zafar Marg on Wednesday.

The players and officials of the Delhi Soccer Association (DSA) played the game on the road to highlight the plight of the organisers in getting the facilities at the Ambedkar Stadium for football.

The protest lasted more than two hours throwing the traffic into disarray around Delhi Gate and ITO.

The stadium has been allotted for Rajiv Gandhi Sports Festival that includes mud wrestling even as the selection trials and coaching for the Delhi under-21 team for the National Championship has been in progress there.

Despite being projected as the central venue for football activities in the Capital in the Vision India Report of the Asian Football Confederation, the Ambedkar Stadium has often been allotted for political rallies and various other functions at the cost of football.

Total misuse

"This is a total misuse of the soccer field. In the past too we have been ejected from the stadium to accommodate wrestling events. We had obtained a no-objection certificate up to May 31for our coaching camps," said the DSA Secretary N. K. Bhatia.

According to Mr. Bhatia, the DSA was given assurance by some of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi officials that steps would be taken to ensure that interest of the footballers were not harmed in future. — Sports Reporter

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