AIFF ban: Gokulam Kerala FC asked to return to India after being ruled out of Asian Women’s Club Championship

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Bengaluru, August 20: It was the destruction of a dream as Gokulam Kerala FC's women's team has been asked to return to India from Uzbekistan by the Union Sports Ministry as they will not be eligible able to participate in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) AFC Women's Club Championship due to the ban on All Indian Football Federation (AIFF).

As per media reports, the club is looking for flight options to leave Tashkent at the earliest.

It may be recalled that following the decision of the game's global governing body -- FIFA -- to ban AIFF, Gokulam were technically ineligible to compete at the AFC Women's Club Championship.

But the team had already departed for Tashkent before the FIFA decision came. The team then made a clarion call from the Uzbek capital city to the sports ministry in New Delhi and wrote to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following which swift action was taken.

The team manager spoke as the players stood beside as a tight-knit unit adamant on not giving up hope in a game they were not expecting to be part of.

The impassioned plea worked, as the ministry promptly took up the matter with the AFC, which offered the team an extension of 48 hours in Tashkent.

So, instead of taking the next flight back home, the team from India was allowed to stay in the Uzbek capital city where it has gone with lots of hope.

But now it is all over for the club.

The team was scheduled to compete against a team from Iran on August 23 and one from the host nation on August 26 in Qarshi.

Back home, the country's apex court -- Supreme Court -- has deferred till August the case referring to AIFF suspension by FIFA.

With the Sports Ministry informing Gokulam about the need to return to India at the earliest, the club has no other options.