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October 8, 2002 | 2030 IST

AFC dismisses India's objections

The Asian Football Confederation brushed aside India's objections to the format for the Asian Games football tournament, saying it had clarified earlier that only the two best second-placed teams in the preliminary league would qualify for quarter-finals and there was no ambiguity in the regulations, which were circulated to all the teams ahead of the championship.

Dismissing the Indian team management's allegation that qualification rules were changed midway through the championship as "not true", tournament committee chairman Tadao Murata said clause 7.5.4 of the regulations say "the teams qualifying first (6 teams) and the two best runners-up teams shall qualify for the quarter finals".

The Indian football manager Santo Mitra, in a letter to Murata, had complained that the rules of qualification for the quarter-finals were changed before India's last league match against China.

"It is inconceivable that this could even be considered, let alone implemented, midway through the tournament," Mitra said in his letter.

"Further to this, we would like to point out the fact that the teams in groups D, E and F had two extra days of rest," he said.

"If this was not bad enough, you have two countries of the same region (referring to Bahrain and Palestine) knowing the result needed for the other to qualify. All games that could decide a group should have been played at the same time on the same day. It is a very regrettable situation and we are deeply disappointed," he said.

In his reply, Murata said the scheduling of matches was a Busan Asian Games Organising Commitee prerogative because of the various events involved but it was ensured that all final matches within the group would be played simultaneously.

"It is not possible to control the scheduling of matches outside the group which involved the position of the runners-up qualifiers," he said.

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