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There seems to be no end to the troubles of Kolkata’s United Sports Club. Sponsorless for a year, they avoided relegation last season but still are ineligible for the 2014-15 I-League as they failed to get the national license.
On Thursday it went from bad to worse as Bengal football’s governing body IFA announced the expulsion of United SC from the premier division of the Calcutta Football League following their failure to register players by the specified deadline.
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The IFA released a new fixture list on Thursday without the name of United SC in it and as per rules the purple shirts will be relegated to the super division. The championship round of the CFL premier division was supposed to start on August 3 with a clash between East Bengal and United SC but now it will kick off on August 10 with East Bengal taking on Mohammedan Sporting.
The number of participants in the championship round was reduced from 12 to 11 including eight qualifiers from the super division.
United SC club director Nabab Bhattacharya told Sportskeeda that they intend to appeal the exclusion but admitted that the club is struggling to form a team following the expulsion from the I-League.
“We were close to getting a sponsor but everything fell apart once we were denied the national license to play in the I-League. With no I-League assurance, most of our players from last season have gone to other clubs. We would have still registered a youthful squad for CFL but due to some miscommunication we missed the deadline. I will have discussions internally with other club members but we do plan to appeal our exclusion from the CFL,” Bhattacharya told Sportskeeda.
Despite not being relegated from last season’s I-League, United SC are still not guaranteed of a direct entry into next season’s second division campaign, a decision which has baffled Bhattacharya. As per new second division regulations each club will have to fulfil certain criteria to feature in the second tier.
“We appealed to the AIFF president to consider our financial problems and allow us in the I-League but we still haven’t officially heard back. It is a surprise that although we survived in terms of points in the I-League there is still no guarantee of us playing in the second division at least.
“But despite the problems off the field we want to field a team in the second division. I think our absence from the I-League is a big setback for footballers in Bengal in particular because our club used to provide a platform for the local players to feature in the top flight. It is difficult but hopefully we will be able to bounce back,” Bhattacharya signed off.
