Minerva Punjab's rescheduled I-League fixture against Real Kashmir in doubt

The game was rescheduled after the Delhi High Court passed an order to the effect.

The postponed I-League game between Minerva Punjab and Real Kashmir FC is likely to be not played, given the futility of the game. The final decision though is yet to be taken by the AIFF committee, an anonymous AIFF official told IANS.

Minerva Punjab refused to travel to Kashmir just after the Pulwama attack for the league fixture. The foreign players of the Punjab side were asked by their national embassies not to do so. Hence Minerva owner Ranjit Bajaj requested for the fixture to be rescheduled.

But the AIFF wasn't too keen to do so initially. The refusal of AIFF for the fixture to be postponed gave Real Kashmir a walk-over. The reluctance of the AIFF forced the Punjab side to take the matter to the Delhi High Court.

Minerva Punjab were given the green flag by the High Court for the game to replayed. But now as things stand, the game would make no difference and the two clubs know that.

The two teams could hence be sharing a point each, which for Minerva would put them a position above they are placed at the moment, but won't help Real Kashmir to leapfrog East Bengal.

"Since the I-League is already over and we are at the end of the season, there is hardly any point in playing the match. Both teams have realised the futility of the effort. A final decision will be taken in the league committee meeting in Bhubaneswar on Saturday," claimed an AIFF official to IANS.

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The league game isn't the only controversy, and there's one more controversy that the governing body needs to address. The AIFF has to sit and discuss the fate of seven I-League clubs after they refused to participate in the Super Cup fixtures.

Former I-League champions Aizawl FC along with NEROCA FC, Mohun Bagan AC, Quess East Bengal FC, Churchill Brothers, Gokulam Kerala FC and Minerva Punjab FC refused to play their Super Cup fixtures earlier after the leagues finished.

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The refusal was because of the ignorance and the passivity of the AIFF towards the club's request of a meeting to discuss the issues, and the future ahead of I-League and it's clubs.

The league committee, headed by the federation's senior vice president Subrata Dutta, has to take a decision on the acts of the seven clubs. Although it is said that the federation is looking daggers at the seven clubs for going against the rules, the IANS believes that the matter can go to the higher committees.