Chennai City allegedly run into trouble over unpaid player salaries, club denies story

CHENNAI CITY ARE NOT HAVING A DREAM RUN on the field but neither are the off-field tihngs working  smoothly for the Tamil Nadu based team. Players have not received their salaries from the past two months as per a report on the Times of India. 

Foreign players have threatened not travel to Aizawl for the next game in a couple of days. To make things worse, the players are said to approach the Football Players Association of India (FPAI) with their grievance. 

Chennai City had recently has the issues of their home ground sorted then only lately their head coach replaced after a disappointing run keeping them at the bottom side of points table for the most part of the season. 

A senior player, on condition of anonymity, told TOI that he has already intimated an FPAI official about their present crisis.

"The official asked us to wait for a few more days before taking the matter forward. I also had a chat with two of our foreigners. They said they might leave the country before the next match if not paid immediately," the player said.

CCFC's monthly wages run up to Rs 25 lakh approximately. Vikam Murali, the club general secretary did accept that payments have been delayed and said

"We understand the players' problems. But they also should know our issues. There has been restructuring going on at the club with new sponsors coming in. Initially, we didn't have enough man-power to handle it. But we are sorting out the issues and the payments will be done immediately,"

Another player expressed his concern saying

"I had a chat with my agent and he is also concerned. It is very difficult on me because of my family," said the player.

Some of the younger players were most affectd by the delayed payments,

"Whenever we receive an SMS, we check whether the salary is being credited...The juniors don't even have money for recharging their mobiles and they are not venturing out of their hotel rooms," the player said. 

In the last home game against Shillong, there was a visible tiff between Marcos and Denson on the field. Also, there were reports that the dressing room also had some spat between players. All this does no good to the team that has problems piling up.

UPDATE: Chennai City sources have vehemently denied the veracity of the TOI story. They claim that the payments in question were processed last week, and their general secretary was wrongly quoted by the paper.

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