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What’s the story?
The Indian U16 football team was on its way to Serbia to continue its exposure tour when a rather bizarre incident occurred. The young colts were put to shame as the Russian carrier, Aeroflot, withheld their clearance for travel to Serbia.
The boys produced all the respective documents required and only then were they cleared for travel, but not before they were embarrassed by being made to wait.
In case you didn’t know…
The Indian under-16 football team is presently on an exposure tour. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is leaving no stone unturned for the U16 boys to be well prepared for the AFC U16 Championship, which is scheduled to happen later this year in Malaysia.
The young colts recently played the Sport Chain Cup where they lost all their three matches, two against the USA and one against Norway. Prior to this event, India pulled off some highly improbable wins, defeating Hong Kong and Singapore in the Jockey Cup.
The heart of the matter
Aeroflot authorities were reportedly of opinion that the boys were being illegally taken to Europe. However, the federation clarified to Sportskeeda that was not the case.
AIFF told Sportskeeda that the delay took place due to certain paperwork, which was soon provided to the squad by the federation. They have since released and have safely reached Serbia.
What’s next?
The Blue Colts will be focussing on the upcoming matches of the tour where they face Jordan, Serbia, and Tajikistan. The bigger picture still remains that the boys should perform well in the matches and gain experience, and this incident is inconsequential.
Author’s take
The young lads should leave this incident behind them and not let it get to their head and trust the management to take care of it.
Coach Bibiano Fernandes now needs to ensure that the incident does not affect the children in any way. He has also, hopefully, worked on the mistakes the team made in their previous encounters and we get to see more clinical finishing by the strikers.
