KOCHI: There was a time when Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT), Eloor, used to be the strongest football team in the state.
Good enough to topple the marauding Kerala Police a few times en route to tournament wins in the first half of the 1990s.
A prime reason was that it had a football ground of its own.
FACT still possesses a playing field. But if the recent developments are any indication, football at the venue could soon become a casualty. The ground has so often been the choice for Kerala’s Santosh Trophy camp.
Raising concern among the football fraternity is the fact that the management has invited tenders “from interested private parties for licence to use the playing area in the FACT Ground (excluding the basketball and volleyball courts) at Udyogamandal for practising and conducting games like football, cricket and hockey,” as mentioned in the notice published on the Public Sector Unit’s website.
The licence will be for one year and the minimum bid amount fixed for submitting tenders is `1.8 lakh, with the last date for submitting tenders being May 5.
A FACT official told ‘City Express’ that they had sent notices regarding the matter to organisations likely to take interest in the proposal, such as the Kerala Football Association, Kerala Cricket Association and the Kerala State Sports Council, along with their Ernakulam district units.
A few football clubs, like Golden Threads FC and Eagles FC have also been intimated.
“The tendency to increase the minimum bid amount every year means that no football club, cash-strapped as they are, would be able to take over a ground for such a high price just for practice,” KFA general secretary P Anilkumar said.
With the health of hockey in the state too being poor, the only likely pursuer of the proposal could be KCA.
“We will study the matter and decide accordingly,” said KCA secretary T C Mathew.
Up In Arms
Meanwhile, the FACT Employees Association (FEA) has come out strongly against the move to include cricket as one of the games for which the ground could be licensed. Their fear is that once the ground is allotted to cricket, it would be difficult for football to stage a comeback.
“We want the ground to be maintained by the FACT management,” said FEA union general secretary P S Murali.
“We have registered our protest with the management. FEA is committed to ensuring that the ground is available for football, especially for youngsters’ coaching programmes,” he said. Former footballers too are upset at the turn of events.
“It’s disappointing. It is easy and profitable for the management if an outside agency maintains the ground. But it will harm football in the long run,” said a former FACT player.
