Only a few days back an ex Olympiad footballer in Bengal was moving from one hospital to another for his treatment. He was not getting an admission since he did not have enough cash with him. When he was brought to the BNR railway hospital in Kolkata and the medicos were told that he was an Olympiad, the authorities wanted to see the medal to verify!  Finally this episode became public through media and the Government and other associations came forward to support him. This is just an instance. Several ex - footballers are not doing well today.

Football clubs in Kolkata would do well spending such extra money ( officially Rs 13 crore, actually  the amount may be even more)  on welfare and recognition of India’s  ex players or improving the ground infrastructure in our country than flying down Diego Maradona and his girl friend to inaugurate a football academy. In days of recession. This is a colossal waste and I am surprised that the State Government is also a party to it. If such trend continues we would see stream of such stars of yesteryears visiting cities of India at a very large fees since their sources of earning in their own countries are drying up (there is declared recession everywhere be it USA, Europe or even Japan). We must have some regulation to check this; otherwise people’s hard earned money would be wasted.