India ladies’s coach Thomas Dennerby blamed the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for ‘destroying’ the workforce’s goals and accused them of ‘unprofessional’ dealing with of the bio-bubble, which led to a Covid-19 outbreak within the workforce.
The AFC guidelines compelled India to withdraw from the continuing Asian Cup after the hosts had been unable to subject a compulsory 13 gamers for his or her match towards Chinese Taipei final Sunday.
As on Wednesday, Dennerby mentioned 19 out of the 23 gamers within the squad and 6 help workers members examined constructive.
Speaking from his resort room in Navi Mumbai, the place your complete workforce is in isolation, Dennerby mentioned the workforce and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) might’ve accomplished nothing extra when it comes to taking precautions.“Honestly, we are not happy with the AFC’s tournament organisation and lack of solutions. One way, it destroyed our dreams,” he mentioned.
The 12-nation competitors is being held throughout three venues in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune. The pre-tournament organisational half was dealt with by a Local Organising Committee however it’s learnt that the workforce accommodations had been chosen by the AFC and in-tournament operations, together with the bio-bubble protocols, too are being dealt with by them.
Dennerby hinted that the Indian workforce received contaminated via the resort workers. The 62-year-old Swede mentioned the workers of the resort the place the Indian workforce has been put up had undergone RT-PCR exams on January 17.
“The result of the test was given to the AFC on the 18th. (But) the AFC did not send the results to the hotel until the 19th. Seven hotel staff infected with Covid, including team India coordinator, kitchen staff, chef, housekeeping, service staff… all those taking care of us while we were quarantined,” he mentioned. “Why didn’t the AFC send the report earlier? Why wait the whole day? I think that was an unprofessional way to handle it in an AFC bubble, no explanation can be good enough.”
Dennerby mentioned that after the goalless draw towards Iran, ‘not many players were feeling good’. The following day, on January 21, the gamers had been examined, which resulted in seven constructive instances. The coach mentioned they tried to have a ‘logical, reasonable dialogue with the AFC’ however they didn’t have a ‘solution-oriented’ dialogue, ultimately resulting in India getting compelled out of the competitors.
“This is my worst feeling as a head coach ever. Me and the team are devastated. Our dreams are forever field,” Dennerby mentioned.
An e mail has been despatched to the AFC, looking for their response.
