Minerva owner Bajaj under lens for social outburst

The All India Football Federation's (AIFF) League Committee has decided to drag Minerva Punjab FC owner Ranjit Bajaj to the Ethics Committee for his regular outbursts against the parent body, but did not pronounce any judgement on the I-League clubs for boycotting the Super Cup.

The League Committee, headed by AIFF senior Vice President Subrata Dutta, met on Saturday and referred the matter to the Disciplinary Committee on the basis of Super Cup regulations and I-League participation agreement.

Seven I-League clubs stayed away from the Super Cup demanding a meeting with AIFF President Praful Patel to chalk out a proper roadmap for Indian football. The clubs also alleged clear bias on the part of the federation in promoting the league run by its marketing partners.

In the meeting, it was proposed that a case should be made against those who were constantly running down the national association on social media platforms despite being directly associated with Indian football.

"No one was named in the meeting, but it was clearly meant for Bajaj, who has been using the space in social media to launch attacks on the federation on different issues," a member present in the meeting told IANS.

The Ethics Committee is headed by Amod Kanth.

The League Committee also decided not to arrange a replay of the I-League match between Real Kashmir FC and Minerva Punjab, which was originally scheduled for February 18. The match could not be played after the Punjab side refused to travel to Srinagar citing security reasons in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack on February 14. The match would be recorded as a drawn encounter and both teams will receive one point each.

The committee also received a report from the federation's integrity officer on the match between Chennai City FC and Minerva Punjab. While the match commissioner's report said the game was not played "in the right spirit", the integrity officer said he did not find anything suspicious about the way two teams conducted. His view was accepted by the committee.

(Jaydeep Basu can be contacted at basu.jaydeep@gmail.com)

--IANS

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