E. Bengal feign ignorance about coaches course

The three big guns of Kolkata football on Thursday expressed a desire to send representatives to the ongoing 'A' license camp for coaches, at the Sports Authority of India Centre in Kolkata.

The camp began a week ago and will concluded on June 2.

Twenty-three coaches from all over the country are at the camp, in the hope of obtaining the 'A' license from the Asian Football Confederation's former Technical Director and current FIFA technical consultant S Subramanium, who is conducting the course.

While most of the country's leading clubs are represented at the camp, the coaches of East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan are conspicuous by their absence.

Explaining the reason for the same, Mohun Bagan secretary Anjan Mitra said: "We could not send anybody because we don't have a coach till now. But if any of the former players, like Satyajit Chatterjee and Subrata Bhattacharjee, want to acquire this license we will sure support it."

Asked how soon will Bagan be able to finalise upon their coach, Mitra said the club has homed in on two persons and the name would be announced soon.

East Bengal president Kalyan Majumdar, however, expressed ignorance about the camp, saying his club had no prior intimation from either the IFA or AIFF regarding the coaches' license programme and hence could not send anyone.

Mohameddan Sporting secretary Sultan Ahmed sounded quite enthusiastic about the camp. "We know the AIFF is making it a rule to have licensed coaches for the National Football League. We are interested in sending Mohammad Habib and Nasir Ahmed for the course," he said.

Only three Bengal coaches are attending the camp. They are Prasanta Banerjee, Sujit Chakraborty and Ananta Ghosh.