ISL: Hyderabad FC players complain about unpaid wages to AIFF
ISL club Hyderabad FC has come under the scanner after some of their players complained to the All India Football Federation regarding last season's unpaid wages. As per sources, the payments were delayed frequently.
It was also quoted that the ISL club had not paid their foreign players for the last couple of months. Furthermore, the Indian players also have unpaid dues, with the time period ranging from one to three months.
"The foreign players are in discussion because all the payments from Hyderabad happened with delays of 2 or 3 months (sic). Of course, understandable because is a new franchise. The point is: all the deadlines have been told with lies and now with the corona outbreak, they said it is not possible to make any payment. We know the bank is open and working normally," one of their foreign players was quoted as saying to Hindustan Times on the condition of anonymity.
The ISL organizers, Football Sports Development Ltd, advised the players to write to the AIFF so that the matter could be resolved quickly.
The issue first surfaced when English defender Matthew Kilgallon's father, Shaun Kilgallon, commented on a Hyderabad FC post that his son hadn't been receiving payments on time. However, the ISL side didn't respond to those allegations.
Kilgallon represented England internationally during his youth career (U-18s to U-21s) and played for Leeds United, Sheffield United and Sunderland in the Premier League before moving to India. Blackburn Rovers, West Ham United and Sheffield United were some of the other clubs he represented in the lower divisions.
Hyderabad FC's spell in the ISL goes further south
Hyderabad FC were rooted to the bottom of the table in last season's ISL, having picked up only 10 points from 18 matches. They sacked Phil Brown in January 2020 after the club continued their poor performance.
Since then, the Telangana-based ISL outfit have roped in Albert Roca for the 2020-21 campaign. Hyderabad FC have also signed promising Indian talent in the form of Ajay Chhetri and Liston Colaco. While the former joined from Bengaluru FC, the latter was acquired from FC Goa.
Although the youngsters helped the club pick up a win over NorthEast United FC and produce stalemates against Mumbai City FC and Jamshedpur FC in the last few group games of ISL, it wasn't enough to lift them off the bottom of the pile.
Hyderabad FC officials were unavailable to comment when Sportskeeda tried reaching them.