Kitchee SC furious over India’s treatment of Zesh Rehman

Kitchee president Ken Ng Kin was fuming yesterday after his centre-half Zesh Rehman, a British-born Pakistani, was forced to undergo a 24-hour questioning at the Delhi airport before finally being allowed to enter the country. Kitchee SC however defeated Churchill Brothers 4-0 in their AFC Cup tie, with Rehman in the team.

Rehman, a British-born Pakistani, after the questioning, got clearance to join his teammates for the group E match, after which he lashed out his feelings on Twitter, suggesting that the ordeal was “the longest 24 hours ever”. He went to add: “Finally all the paper work sorted to stay in India 4 the match on Wednesday.”

Naturally, Rehman’s treatment angered club president Ken, who had escorted the team to the city of Pune.

Ken Ng Jin said: “We know there would be problems for Rehman to play in India because of his nationality and we therefore started processing all the necessary documents a couple of months ago, But despite all these efforts, the player still faced so many difficulties in getting through the immigration that we considered sending him back to Hong Kong and not playing.

“He is just a sportsman coming to India to play in a football match and we are very disappointed he has been treated like a criminal.

“There were also problems in the journey through Delhi as it took us three hours to get off the plane to the hotel in the same terminal. It’s a real experience.”

Ng appreciated the efforts of Churchill Brothers in helping them sort things out. He however added that they would still report all the problems they faced to the Asian Football Confederation.