Chhetri, two more footballers to get accreditation cards for Asian Games
In what can be termed as good news for Indian football, superstar Sunil Chhetri, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and Sandesh Jhingan will get their accreditation cards for the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, to be held from September 23 to October 8. The football matches will be beginning a few days earlier.
Millenium Post has learnt from official sources on Sunday that these three footballers, whose names had not been submitted initially to the Indian Olympic Association, will now be able to go. However, there is a catch, as the accreditation cards which will be received by the IOA in August for these players will require applying separately for visas from the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi.
The usual protocol is that when the accreditation request for players, officials, coaches and support staff is made in time, the validation cards bear the passport details. Thereby, no separate visa request has to be made. There has been a faux pas from the AIFF side as they had not sent the names of these three players in the long list and short list. Applying for visas may be a mere formality but there will be a process to be gone through. After all, last week, when three players from Arunachal Pradesh did not get the regular visa but stapled visas from China for the World University Games in Chengdu, China, there was an uproar. The three players from Arunachal were to represent in the sport of Wushu. The Indian government then decided to pull out the entire team from the World University Games.
Sources further told Millenium Post the visa application for the three football players will have to be made by the AIFF. Usually, for the Olympics, Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games, there are no visa hassles. Morever, Chhetri, Gurpreet and Jhingan are not from Arunachal Pradesh, which is a “problem country” in diplomatic relations with China.
Within the Indian Olympic Association, as of today, there is a mad rush as entries for various sports have been sent and there have been some changes.
