Bengaluru FC have been highly insensitive towards the athletes, says Ashwini Nachappa
Former national sprinter Ashwini Nachappa has lashed out at the Bengaluru FC management stating that they have been extremely insensitive towards other athletes and have treated them like criminals. Nachappa was one of the athletes, who filed a PIL to reclaim the Kanteerava stadium for athletes.
The Blues have got a sudden jolt in plans weeks before the defending champions started the new Indian Super League season, as they would miss out on playing their home games at Shree Kanteerava. The proceedings took place after athletes filed a petition to reclaim the stadium solely for athletics.Â
With the court hearing still in progress, Bengaluru FC have enlisted Pune’s Balewadi stadium for the time being as their home venue. And with the city largely sympathizing with the football club, Ashwini Nachappa has come out to slam them highlighting the rude behaviour the JSW-owned club had towards fellow athletes.
“I have seen posts on Twitter where I’m being portrayed as a villain, but the fact is that Bengaluru FC have been highly insensitive towards the athletes. Athletes of 44 disciplines have been affected, no one is looking at their suffering for the last five years. People who don’t understand sports are commenting. However, we believe the court will stand by us,” said Nachappa, reported Scroll.
“They [Bengaluru FC] have treated athletes [at Kanteerava stadium] like criminals. They completely cordoned off athletics from the stadium. They have set up barricades around the pitch and have private security guards at all four ends of the track so that we don’t even touch the grass. They warned coaches if they tried to move the barricades, they would be arrested. This is a ridiculous way to treat fellow sportspersons,” she added.
Nachappa also highlighted the necessity of athletes using the grass pitch of the stadium, which was unavailable to them as BFC barricaded it preventing them from entering it.
“They have spent a certain amount of money on maintaining the grass, so they didn’t want anyone to use it. Government infrastructure is for the public, and everyone has a right to use it. Students from schools and colleges train here and some have been manhandled by the guards there. This is not acceptable,” she added.
While JSW Sports’ Parth Jindal was quick to claim that the club never wanted to harm athletes in any manner, Nachappa revealed that continuous ignoring and overlooking eventually forced them to move to the court.
“I have nothing personal against Bengaluru FC or JSW Sports. In fact, I was trying to get in touch with their CEO to work out a settlement but there was no end to this. We knocked all the doors, but nothing helped. In the end, we had to go to court. I hope it didn’t come to this, but we had no choice,” she said.
