Kochi’s JNI stadium owners humiliate Indian football team head coach Khalid Jamil

The Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA), which owns the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium in Kochi, humiliated the Indian men’s football team by denying head coach Khalid Jamil and his players access to the venue.

The GCDA refused to let in Jamil, who arrived at the venue on Thursday afternoon for a press conference in connection with the upcoming AFC Asian Cup qualifier. Team India’s Malayali players Ashique Kuruniyan, Sahal Abdul Samad and Bijoy Varghese were expected to join Jamil at the media interaction.

The GCDA security staff stationed at the venue denied entry to Jamil and his players, claiming the organisers, Kerala Football Association (KFA), had failed to remit a security deposit of ₹20 lakh for the March 31 match between India and Hong Kong. Jamil waited at the main entrance for a few minutes before heading back.

KFA President Navas Meeran said there was a delay on their part to make the payment. “It was a technical issue, which will soon be sorted,” Meeran told Onmanorama.

This is not the first time the GCDA has behaved like a cut-throat landlord, as in late February, the statutory body under the Kerala government had evicted the Kerala Blasters from the venue in a similar incident.

Back then, the GCDA shut the entrance to the venue on the eve of the Blasters' Indian Super League (ISL) match against Mumbai City. Officials of the All India Football Federation were also among those denied entry to the venue then.

On that occasion, the dispute was related to stadium rent. GCDA's governing council vetoed its chairman, K Chandran Pillai, refusing to grant the stadium to the Blasters for a subsidised rent of ₹2 lakh per match.

As a result, the GCDA security staff locked the press conference hall when the Blasters head coach David Catala and player Rowllin Borges arrived to address the media.