No kit money for sports not affiliated with IOA?

The IOA has asked eight federations to pay for the clothes their athletes will wear in Jakarta and Palembang. This includes everything from ceremonial wear to training and in-competition kits.

For representational purposes (File | AP)

NEW DELHI: What connects kurash, pencak silat, sambo, bridge, soft tennis, sepak takraw, sports climbing and roller skating? If you answered ‘India will be sending athletes in all these disciplines to the Asian Games next month’, you are right. But there is a deeper, harsher connect. The federations of all those eight sports are not affiliated with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).

As a ‘punishment’ for that, the IOA has asked those eight federations to pay for the clothes their athletes will wear in Jakarta and Palembang. This includes everything from ceremonial wear — Team India blazers during the Opening and Closing Ceremonies — to training and in-competition kits.

They have also been asked to take care of Team India jackets the athletes will have to wear during medal ceremonies. The cost of the whole shebang per athlete is around `30,000 to `35,000 (ballpark figure irrespective of the discipline). Eighty-three (of the 541) athletes from the eight federations will be affected by this and many of the unaffiliated federations are searching for answers. “We were told on Saturday to foot the bill for the ceremonial attire as well as in-competition kits for all our athletes,” the head of an unaffiliated federation told Express.

Another official, who also did not want to be named, was visibly upset. “Eventually, we are all competing for India... this is discrimination.” Interestingly, IOA treasurer, Anandeshwar Pandey, himself believes that there has to be some sort of identifier to segregate the unaffiliated from the affiliated. “In one of our meetings, we had decided it. There has to be something that separates affiliated units from the unaffiliated units.” But IOA president Narinder Batra contradicted Pandey’s statement. “It must be some misunderstanding.

There are specific sports where we told them to get their kits designed directly from our vendor but wewill reimburse them.” IOA have given contact details of the same vendor to ensure uniformity in the attire of athletes across all sports. There is confusion on whether the federations who govern the eight fringe sports will be reimbursed at all. “What happens in matters like this is that the sports ministry might reimburse the bills. But, yes, we would like to have some clarity.” Express, however, has reliably learnt that the sports ministry has decided not to intervene for the time being.

The athletes of one of the eight federations will be arriving late as their events start late but not many have the same luxury. The issue, according to the head of a third unaffiliated federation, is because of a supposed clause in IOA’s sponsorship deal. “The IOA deal says the sponsors will provide kit only for their affiliated members. Since we are not a part of the IOA, their sponsors will not bear our expenses,” another federation official said. This newspaper hasn’tbeen able to independently verify the existence of such a clause. But there is some hope. Another federation official claimed that IOA will take a final call on whether to reimburse the bills in the next few days.

“They did not take the decision on Saturday as both the president and the secretary weren’t available. So it was decided then that they would take a decision this week.” EFI facing similar issue Even though the Equestrian Federation of India is a member of the IOA, they are also facing a similar issue. As their horses and riders need special equipment and costumes, they will have to spend close to `7 lakh for the entire contingent.

“The IOA is giving us the uniforms for the opening and closing ceremonies. But we will be footing the bill for the playing kits for our riders and horses. It’s about `50,000 for each rider and horse. So it comes up to about Rs 7 lakh. We hope that the ministry will foot that bill.”

swaroop@newindianexpress.com