KOCHI: Private funding is what every sports federation dreams about while planning for a season. In India, it is often hard to come by except for in cricket.
The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) is tying to buck this trend. In the WFI general body meeting in Gonda on Monday, it was decided that grapplers who get private sponsorship should inform the federation about details of the contracts they sign.
The decision was taken to avoid funding by donors who do it for publicity as well as to ward off cases where funding is not transparent. It was decided that details of private spending would be collected and conveyed to the ministry.
“Before signing a deal, players should inform us that they are going to have a pact with a private body. We will collect the details and forward it to the ministry,” a WFI source told Express. “By doing so, we can check with players what clauses they have agreed upon. Apart from that, we also want to know how much money is spent by private parties on our wrestlers. In the past, some private donors spent money on players.
When wrestlers achieved something, they began taking full credit forgetting that they had spent peanuts when compared to the money spent by the ministry and federation,” he said. WFI secretary general VN Prasood acknowledged that they've formulated such a rule but declined to reveal reasons. However, sources said there were instances in the past where donors tried to interfere.
“There were complaints regarding interference in training. We also doubt whether they are spending money that they have declared fully, on the grapplers.” Though the step was taken against private sponsors, the expert committee formed by the National Rifle Association of India to probe the Rio debacle had expressed concerns about government funds. It had pulled up the Sports Ministry for liaising directly with the shooters.
“The NRAI should initiate a meaningful dialogue with Sports Ministry and Sports Authority of India and tell them of the benefits of having the national federations in the loop with regards to training plans and progress reports,” the report of the committee headed by Abhinav Bindra said. As per the Athletics Federation of India, athletes and federation need to be on the same page but direct funding without consulting the establishment can create distrust. “It's imperative that the federations know what are the training programmes funded by the ministry. Then only they can formulate their own plan. Athletes, federations and the ministry should be on the same page,” said AFI joint secretary Tony Daniel.