Sports Authority of India to take Athletics Federation of India to task, will recover money spent on athletes

NEW DELHI: A livid Sports Authority of India today decided to take Athletics Federation of India to task for the embarrassment it caused to the country after 18 overaged athletes were barred from the Nanjing Asian Youth Games and said it would recover the money spent by it on the athletes' airfare.

Squarely blaming the AFI for the shocking incident, SAI Director General Jiji Thomson said that the government had spent around Rs 10 lakh for the airfare of the disqualified athletes who are returning home from China.

Only Under-17 athletes -- those born in January 1997 or later -- were eligible to take part in the Asian Youth Games but the AFI included 18 athletes who were born in 1996 in the track and field team of 27.

"It's a huge embarrassment. We are terribly annoyed by the development. We will definitely seek an explanation from the AFI and will also recover the amount spent on their airfare which is almost Rs 10 lakhs. We are going to the recover this money from the AFI," Thomson said.

"We will have to take them (AFI) to task, need to ask them why they did this? The chances of our athletes are gone," he added.

The AFI claimed that it had followed International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) rules according to which 1996-born players were eligible. But they forgot that the Games were being held as per the International Olympic Committee ( IOC) rules.

Thomson said it was entirely the job of the federation to check the eligibility of the athletes while picking the team and SAI's job was to arrange for athletes' travel.

"This is exclusively the right of federation, prerogative of the federation to select the athletes and so they are bound to follow the rules.

"In this case, the federation had selected the athletes and corresponded directly to the organising committee. Based on that visas were issued to them. We only arranged for their travel, that's the only responsibility of the SAI. They (AFI) should have observed the rules," he said.