NEW DELHI: It was bad enough that astrology was thought of as crucial in today’s modern-day football. A company was duly contracted to probably help decide team formations based on favourable planetary alignments to help India qualify for next year’s Asian Cup.
Now documents accessed by TOI reveal that all of it may have been a cover for something else altogether, serious enough for a forensic audit to be initiated within the All India Football Federation (AIFF).
Signed on April 29, 2022, by AIFF general secretary Kushal Das on the agreement to “assist Head Coach of National Team, Men,” the AIFF had “appointed Nyassa Astrocorp (GST No. 07BBAPS4367L1Z7), for a fee of Rs 24 lakhs plus GST for a period of three months from April 1, 2022 to June 30, 2022. Bhupesh Sharma, of Nyassa Astrocorp, is the co-signatory to the agreement.
The bizarre allotment of funds is a telling commentary on the AIFF administration. The matter must be probed and those responsible for recruiting the agency must be taken to task.
Situated in a service lane in the residential N-Block of Green Park Extension in the Capital, the company cl aims to provide corporate astrology services, personal and career consultancy, as per its website.
According to the contract, the amount was supposed to be paid in three instalments of eight lakhs (plus applicable GST), “on each of 21 April, 15 May and 15 June 2022. In addition to the fee, AIFF will also reimburse Nyassa all expenses on actuals during the performance of the duties,” the agreement read.
The payment for June has been halted after this came to light, while a sum of Rs 16 lakh had already been paid to the firm and in this bewildering arrangement, there was a provision to extend this partnership to a further two years. “The AIFF shall have first right of negotiation to renew this agreement for a further of two years,” the April 29 contract had added.
What is interesting is that in the stipulated three-month period of their contract, while it was being claimed that three sittings had been done with the Indian team – one in Bellary and twice in Kolkata last month – none of the players recall having interacted with anyone of this nature. “We didn’t have any talk,” a senior p layer told TOI on condition of anonymity.
Kushal Das was not available for comment.
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