Meghalaya had fielded a new-look squad against Odisha
in the sub-junior National football championship final for the Coca-Cola
Cup at Father Agnel’s Sports Complex on Wednesday.
Seven
from the north-east State, who played in the semifinal win over
Karnataka (including captain and first choice goalkeeper Frolicson
Dkhar), were dropped for the title clash by the team management to avoid
protests over fielding overage footballers in a national final.
Meghalaya
manager, Kiran Joshi, confirming changes in team composition for the
final, said: “We did not include the seven players to avoid problems.
Why take risks when we were confident of winning without them. We played
without our main goalkeeper. We consider all 20 boys on our team to be
equal and if you notice, we played with a short goalkeeper.”
The
sub-junior National is open for children in the 12-15 age group and
helps in spotting talent for India Under-16 squad. The group games were
played at DSK Shivajians ground, Pune, where Meghalaya drew with
Jharkhand 0-0, beat Uttar Pradesh 10-0, Kerala 1-0 to top Group C and
qualify for the semifinals at Goan Sports Association ground,
Churchgate.
Team manager Joshi said that the entire squad had undergone medical examination at Pune.
The
decision forced on the Meghalaya team management removed doubts about
the title clash turning into a mismatch. The results in the semifinals
and group games with the full squad in games against Karnataka,
Jharkhand, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh will be under a shadow.
India
is among the bidders for the U-17 FIFA World Cup football in 2017 and
the talent pool identified at Navi Mumbai in 2013 and Kalyani in 2012
will be considered for selection.