The bad blood between Indian Olympic Association and non-affiliate sports federations ran deeper after the the latter were asked to pay for the opening and closing ceremony uniforms and playing kits for their players participating in the upcoming Asian Games in Indonesia, Mumbai Mirror reported on Monday.
There are 83 Indian athletes who will be representing the non-affiliate sports, which comprises of Sambo, Pencak Silat, Roller skating, Sport Climbing, Soft tennis, Kurash, Sepak Tekraw and Bridge with most of them making their debut in Jakarta and Palembang.
To add to the federations and athletes’ woes, they would also have to pay for their playing kits too.
According to the report, the opening/closing ceremony uniforms cost Rs 10,000 while the playing kit comes at a price of Rs 20,000 each. “This is unfair. Spending Rs 30,000 on each athlete will be very expensive. At times we find it difficult to run the sport owing to limited funds. How are we supposed to spend huge sums of money on uniform?” an official from one of the non-affiliate sports was quoted as saying.
“We’ve already been spending a lot of money. We’ve been given all the facilities possible as this would be our first appearance at the Asian Games. We had many players in the camp before the IOA decided to prune the squad. With already so much money put in for preparation, this extra cost comes as a huge burden,” another non-affiliated sport official was quoted as saying.
Athletes without the opening ceremony uniforms are not allowed to be a part of the ceremony. Not wearing the appropriate playing kit would mean that the players could be penalised.
An affiliated IOA member, who is a part of the Equestrian Federation of India, weighed in on the matter: “The IOA is giving us the uniforms for the opening and closing ceremonies. But we will also be footing the bill for the in-competition dresses for our riders and horses. That comes to about Rs 50,000 for each rider and horse. So the seven-member squad will cost us Rs seven lakh,” the official said.
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