Hyderya Sports Kashmir FC, which was one of the 10 teams slated to play the I-League qualifiers from October 4 in Bengaluru, might be disqualified by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) after they produced a fake bank guarantee of Rs 25 lakhs. AIFF had asked all the interested clubs to submit a bank guarantee of the above mentioned amount as part of the selection process for the I-League qualifiers. 29 teams had applied for the qualifiers but only 12 had cleared club licensing, which included Hyderya Sports. The two teams that cleared the licensing and didn’t make the final 10 were Garhwal FC and PIFA Sports FC. Due to the ‘one state one club’ rule, the two teams that finished higher in their respective state leagues – Delhi FC and Kenkre FC – were given the nod from New Delhi and Maharashtra.
Sources say that Hyderya Sports Kashmir FC tried to make a duplicate of the bank guarantee that was submitted by Downtown Heroes, who finished third in the Jammu and Kashmir Professional League. Hyderya had finished second in the league while J&K Bank finished top. Since J&K Bank is an institutional team, it couldn’t have applied for the I-League qualifiers and hence, Hyderya and Downtown applied.
The I-League qualifiers are set to begin from October 4 with the grouping currently as follows:
Group A: Rajasthan United FC, Hyderya Sports Kashmir FC, Ryntih SC, Madan Maharaj FC, FC Bengaluru United.
Group B: Corbett FC, Kenkre Sports, ARA FC, Kerala United FC, Delhi FC.
Hyderya Sports Kashmir FC were the team to kick off the qualifiers against Madan Maharaj but it now remains to be seen how the fixtures pan out.