E Bengal players won't be released for JVC Cup

India's chief football coach, Stephen Constantine, says he will not release East Bengal's players who are in the Afro-Asian Games squad for the club's JVC Cup engagements in Vietnam, from October 31.

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"My players will be busy with the Afro-Asian Games then. I'm sure you will not expect me to release the players in the midst of such a tough tournament," Constantine told newspersons in Jamshedpur on Friday.

Leading teams, including Nigeria, Cameroon and South Korea are taking part in the first ever Afro-Asian Games, scheduled to be held in Hyderabad from October 24 to November 1.

"Unless the JVC Cup organisers shift the tournament to a later date, it will not be possible for me to release the players," he said.

Constantine said East Bengal coach Subhas Bhowmick had requested him to consider the matter but he indicated his helplessness.

Constantine expressed dismay about the injury to Alvito D'Cunha during a Kolkata Super Divison league encounter and blamed poor conditions for frequent injury to players.

"The state leagues are played in poor conditions. The players are forced to play on grounds which virtually resemble muddy pools," he said.

"I would never have allowed any player under me to play in such leagues," he asserted.

Declaring that only around nine clubs in India, four of them in West Bengal and the rest in Goa are premier outfits, Constantine quipped: "Why should they waste their players in such secondary tournaments."

In this context, Constantine said he has been advocating that state leagues be played only with under-21 junior sides.

"The problem in India is that there is not much of planning to harness players from the grassroots," he added.