P.K Banerjee hits out at FIFA for 'ignoring' former India footballers

The former Indian football legend criticises organisers for adopting a ‘lottery system’ to distribute tickets among ex-players

The legendary P.K Banerjee on Saturday said it’s an insult to Indian football that many top former players like Shyam Thapa, Prasun Banerjee and Subhas Bhowmick were not felicitated during the FIFA Under-17 World Cup opener in New Delhi earlier this month.

He also hit out at the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for adopting a ‘lottery system’ to distribute tickets among former footballers.

FIFA LOC later in the evening clarified they followed a “clear” criteria and the football fraternity should have been proud of the



initiative.

The LOC further said that distribution of the complimentary tickets is the “duty” of respective state associations.

“About complimentary tickets for former players, an allocation has been reserved at all the venues for former legends of the game and are being handed out to the state associations,” the LOC said.

“It is the duty of the state association to identify the former players and hand out tickets for the matches,” it said adding that Kolkata has 85 tickets per matchday given to IFA.

“It is solely the decision of the state association how they are distributed and who gets them,” it added.