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Chennai’s loss is set to be Mumbai’s gain as the proposed India, Mauritius and Saint Kitts & Nevis Football Tri-Series is being shifted from Tamil Nadu to Maharashtra due to exorbitant demands by the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT).
The SDAT was asking to charge Rs 200,000 (2 lakh) per match, Rs 75,000 for practice session per day and another Rs 75,000 if the teams train at the ‘B’ ground of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
This means that the Mumbai Football Arena at the Andheri Sports Complex instead of Chennai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium will host the three team tournament which is supposed to kick off on Thursday, August 17.
Also the India camp supposed to kick off on August 11 for the tournament and the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualifier away to Macau on September 5 would be shifted from Chennai to Mumbai.
After the AIFF realised that work on the Chennai facility was show and the charges ridiculously high, they looked at options in Bengaluru and Mumbai, but with Bengaluru FC playing an AFC Cup match on August 23 left Mumbai as the only option with the Bombay Municipal Corporation willing to charge nominal rates to attract international once more to the city.
I’m sure football fans in Mumbai have read, for those yet to, the Mumbai Football Arena will host the tri nation tournament next week ??
— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) August 10, 2017
Regarding the Chennai fiasco , on several social medial platforms I have seen multiple folks cursing the Sports Development Authority of Chennai for charging AIFF high fees for the use of the stadium for competition and practice sessions.
I have a basic query – how did AIFF announce Chennai as a venue without even checking the ground availability and the cost of ground ? Its like fixing a honeymoon destination without even taking a quick look at the airfare and hotel charges.
When Kushal Das of AIFF has so much of time to fly down to Kolkata from Delhi and spend an entire day to discuss with IFA the issue of Avinash Ruidas , why didn´t he or someone else from AIFF spend some time and figure out the basic costs involved in arranging a tournament in Chennai . It looks like AIFF has become so very used to supporting IMGR and listening to commands from IMGR , that they have lost the ability to think independently and take up the ownership of any kind of project.
My understanding is that the local negotiations with the SDAT was left to the Tamilnadu Football Association as the AIFF always involved local state FA’s in sorting out issues of hosting across the country.
AIFF may have delegated the task to a team member ( read Tamil Nadu Football Association ) but AIFF is still accountable for the entire task.
This is the basic concept of managing any project. May be instead of focusing on unimportant things like Abinash Ruidas , AIFF folks like Kushal Das attend a basic introductory training on RACI matric ( Responsibile / Accountable/ Consulted / Informed )
Someone from AIFF is the Project Manager of this tournament and being a Project Manager he might have delegated the task and Responsibility to TNFA however the Project Manager is still accountable and should have closely monitored the status of the task that was delegated to TNFA. The way AIFF behaved reminds me of a typical Indian IT company project manager who simply supports the project manager of the US based client company and executes whatever is asked for by the client.
I believe the World Cup U17 is being organised in the same project management model. Someone from FIFA is managing and owning the major tasks and our AIFF men are simply supporting them and executing the instructions of the FIFA project managers. Its time AIFF starts owning projects independently.
SDAT ?????? TFA?????