Seven Indian women's senior team players from Manipur accuse coaching staff of favouritism

Bala Devi and Kamala Devi are amongst the dissenting group of players who have made the accusations.

Seven players from Manipur weren't a part of the Indian women's team in the recently concluded Gold Cup and Turkish Women's Cup, which rather went unnoticed by majority of the Indian football fans. Now according to a Scroll.in report, the players had withdrawn themselves from the squad and have written a letter to AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das regarding the issue.

The players have complained about the side's coaching staff, citing mismanagement. According to Scroll, who reportedly have a copy of the letter, the head coach (Maymol Rocky) and her assistant (Chaoba Devi) have not been able to unite the team and have been practicing a divide-and-rule policy.

The group of seven players include Bala Devi and Kamala Devi. The former has captained the side in the past, while the latter was named the 2017 Women's AIFF Footballer of the Year.

"The problems between us and Chaoba Devi started long ago. Some of us do not play for her team Kryphsa and play for other teams in Manipur. That in turn, led to her singling some players out," one of the players told Scroll on condition of annonymity It is worth mentioning that Bala Devi had played for Kryphsa in the last season of the Indian Women's League, but was on loan from Manipur Police. 

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Nine players had reportedly boycotted the camp, but two were sent back by their guardians. Also, the players reportedly approached Rocky about the situation created by her second-in-command, but the head coach allegedly took her assistant's side. A portion of the letter alleges, "One of them even used expletives to many of us now and then which is intolerable. Their attitude resulted in a lack of camaraderie which was seen in the result against Nepal.

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Not only are they arrogant, challenging the players now and then saying we will not be selected if we do not toe their line. We follow what is instructed in the field as per their plan, but they are hell-bent on destroying the gamesmanship by openly showing favouritism which was pointed out, but it made both of them even more vindictive. Not only in selection of players for the team, even for fielding there is favouritism."

The team will be gearing up for the upcominf SAFF Championship and Olympics Qualifiers, but this new revelation could put a strain on the side's preparations.