The Hindu : Sport / Football : Rude shock for Sankar

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Tuesday, Apr 18, 2006

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Sport - Football

Rude shock for Sankar

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: FIFA assistant referee K. Sankar's dream of making it to his second successive World Cup duty in Germany ended on a sad note, with FIFA removing his name and replacing it with a Korean official's at the last minute.

After having received all information with regard to his travel (he was booked for the Chennai-Frankfurt flight via Dubai for April 17) for the mandatory tests in Frankfurt, a preparatory exercise before finalising the names of the assistant referees, the World body suddenly decided to dump him.

Sankar came to know of this only when he went to the Germany consulate for his visa.

Missing

"There was a hitch there. And then I suddenly found my name suddenly missing from the list of officials called for the test. I was unable to get any information from FIFA but AFC officials just said my name had been removed. Presumably they wanted a Korean to take my place, because I find his name instead of mine in the fresh list on the website," said a dejected Sankar.

It is not immediately clear as to why this sudden change was made. But according to one source in the AFC, the FIFA has pruned down the officials to nearly half the number originally planned and the officials from Asia were the worst affected.

"It is the World body's decision and we cannot do anything about it," the source said.

Meanwhile, the AIFF has taken the matter seriously and has plans to take it up with AFC.

"I have asked Sankar to send me all relevant details," Alberto Colaco, AIFF secretary, told The Hindu. He said no official information had reached him on why this had happened.

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