Asian Games 2023: Sunil Chhetri, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Sandesh Jhingan's names not in squad

The AIFF President has requested their accreditation for the Asian Games.

Sunil Chhetri, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, and Sandesh Jhingan, the prominent leaders of Indian football, have been notably absent from the official list of athletes representing the country in the upcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. In the men's football category, the team must consist mainly of players under the age of 23, but they are allowed to include three players aged 23 or above. The women's team, on the other hand, do not have any age restrictions.

A few days back Khel Now had revealed that these three senior players will be a part of the Asian Games squad. However, surprisingly, their names were not included in the list of athletes shared with the organizers for the event, and the deadline for submission was July 15.

The men's football contingent consists of 22 players in total, and it has been revealed that the IOA and Chaubey have personally appealed to the Asiad organizers to make an exception and grant accreditation to these players. Chaubey admitted that their names were inadvertently omitted from the original list sent to the organizers during their presentation to the sports ministry officials, seeking clearance for the football teams' participation in the Asian Games. As the head of the AIFF, he personally intervened to ensure their names were added to obtain accreditation.

“When we (AIFF's coaches, technical officials and support staff members and federation officials) had made a presentation to the sports ministry's officials requesting for the football teams' (men and women) clearance for the Asiad, we didn't realise that their names (Chhetri, Sandhu and Jhingan) were not in the original list of athletes sent to the organisers," Kalyan Chaubey told TOI on Friday (July 28).

He added, "When I realized this (omission), being the head of the organization (AIFF), I took up the matter personally to ensure that their names were added so that they could get the accreditation. Their names have been sent to the organizers. The people concerned who made the presentation to the ministry should have known about this. As the federation president, I needed to interfere."

Earlier, the participation of the men's and women's football teams in the Asian Games was uncertain due to the sports ministry's criterion of selecting teams ranked in the top 8 in the continent. However, the ministry eventually cleared both teams and allowed their participation.

Indian men's football team for Asian Games (as per TOI):

Anwar Ali, Gurmeet, Lalengmawia, Narender, Rahim Ali, Lalnuntluanga Bawitlung, Rohit Danu, Prabhsukhan Singh Gill, Aniket Anil Jadhav, Rahul Kannoly Praveen, Amarjit Singh Kiyam, Akash Mishra, Dheeraj Singh Moirangthem, Thoiba Singh Moirangthem, Mahesh Singh Naorem, Roshan Singh Naorem, Siva Sakthi Narayanan, Asish Rai, Vikram Pratap Singh, Deepak Tangri, Jeakson Singh Thounaojam, Suresh Singh Wangjam.