Recover money spent on over-aged athletes: Sports Ministry tells SAI

NEW DELHI: A livid Sports Ministry today asked SAI to recover the money spent on the athletes' airfare from the Athletics Federation of India ( AFI) for the embarrassment caused to the country after 17 over-aged sportspersons were barred from the Nanjing Asian Youth Games.

The Ministry acted swiftly on the report submitted by the Sports Authority of India Director General Jiji Thomson, who has squarely blamed the AFI for the shocking incident.

"We have told SAI that the amount must be recovered from the AFI. If they fail to return us the amount, we will not grant them any further advances in future," Sports Secretary P K Deb told PTI.

The government had spent around Rs 10 lakh for the airfare of the disqualified athletes, who returned home from China after being declared disqualified to take part in the competition.

Asked whether any action has been proposed by SAI against the AFI, Deb replied in negative.

"We have not decided to take any action against the AFI or ban any athlete," he informed.

Thomson had submitted the report to the Sports Secretary on September 9 after he was asked by the ministry to enquire into the issue of 17 track and field athletes being disqualified from the second Youth Asian Games due to overage.

"The incident came as a huge embarrassment to the country. We will recover the cost from the AFI," said Thomson.