Controversial E-mail screenshot lands East Bengal in hot water

What's the story?

East Bengal have shot themselves in the foot again, this time over a fake e-mail screenshot shared publicly on social media by one of the club's representatives. Libero Sports, a player management company, alleged that it was an attempt to malign their company. If the allegations are true, then the Red and Golds will be punished again by the All India Football Federation.

In case you didn't know...

East Bengal were handed a four-month transfer ban by AIFF over forgery regarding the signing of former Minerva Punjab player Sukhdev Singh. Minerva owner Ranjit Bajaj alleged that East Bengal tried to poach their player without paying the transfer fee.

It was against the rules as Sukhdev had more than six months left in his contract. Moreover, East Bengal didn't contact the club directly but instead tried to contact the player through his agent. Mohun Bagan on the other hand also tried to lure Sukhdev to play for their club. But they did everything according to the rule book.

The heart of the matter

After the transfer ban, East Bengal officials targetted Sukhdev's agent Nula Kohringam and his management company Libero Sports. East Bengal media executive Shibam Das shared a screenshot of an e-mail on his social media page which was written by Nula to club official and former East Bengal player Alvito D'Cunha.

Nula claimed that Sukhdev is ready to play for East Bengal and club owner Ranjit Bajaj even gave the move a green signal. Nula also suggested increasing the transfer fee to get the No Objection Certificate at the earliest.

Shibam deleted his post after some time but the damage was already done. The image was already downloaded and circulated via social media by fans and media persons. Knowing this, Minerva officials wasted no time and knocked on the doors of the AIFF. They categorically denied sending the e-mail and claimed it was morphed to malign them. They blamed the club management for this unprofessionalism.

This is the screenshot which created a furor

Nula also released a statement soon after where he said, "It’s unfortunate all these false accusations by a club official has escalated to a whole new level of lies and misdirection for the fans and the people related to this issue. The accusations are baseless and utterly fake. At the end of the day, we all want to see Indian Football grow and be a part of top footballing countries globally. I believe Indian football is heading for good days and we should look forward to it. We should learn to take our responsibilities sincerely for the good of the industry at large."

"The employee in question is a media executive of East Bengal club. It is wrongful from his side and we will continue to take steps so that it does not happen to anyone in the future. This email was never sent by me and I can say that no such email was sent from my end on 25th March 2018. The content itself is naive and is for someone who does not understand anything about the process," added Nula.

What's next?

It has been learned that the AIFF is seriously looking into this and if the allegations are proven to be true, it could pile more misery on East Bengal, who are already reeling under a transfer ban.