As Hyderabad FC's financial issues deepen, 4 top players set to leave the club | ISL 2023-24
Hyderabad FC have lost two and are on the verge of losing two more of their most important Indian players to other clubs, owing to their financial troubles.
Chinglensana Singh, Hitesh Sharma, Nikhil Poojary and Nim Dorjee Tamang are the players in question, with the first two - Chinglensana and Hitesh - having already completed moves to their new clubs.
While Chinglensana has signed a five-and-a-half-year contract with Bengaluru FC, Hitesh has reportedly agreed to a two-and-a-half-year contract with Odisha FC.
Poojary and Tamang are the other two players who are set to sign with their new teams before the January transfer window closes. The deal signed by Sana is one of the lengthiest ever by an Indian footballer to date.
Poojary has been approached by East Bengal, Mumbai City FC and Bengaluru FC, with the Torchbearers reportedly leading the race, as Sportskeeda had reported earlier.
Tamang has also been approached by a club and will most likely complete the signing formalities soon.
Hyderabad FC have failed to clear the dues of their players and staff
Hyderabad have seen most of their top players leaving the club owing to the alleged negligence of the management with regard to paying their wages. The Yellow and Black have reportedly dishonored the rule of the law and failed to pay their players and staff on time.
All the players who have made their exits from the club have seemingly done so owing to the non-payment of their wages. At the moment, the Nawabs have a skeletal playing and management staff, with all big names terminating their contracts and heading elsewhere.
Apart from club captain Joao Victor, everyone else in the foreign contingent has terminated their contract and moved back to their home country.
The Indian quartet of Chinglensana, Hitesh, Poojary and Tamang, who had appealed to the AIFF for relief, were given the go-ahead by the player status committee on Monday (January 29) to sign for their new clubs.
As per an AIFF statute, a player can terminate his contract with just cause and immediate effect if his club has failed to pay him his wages for at least two months from the due date. This step was taken by the governing body to ensure that their footballing careers did not suffer due to the mismanagement of the Hyderabad club officials.
The Nawabs are due to host former head coach Manolo Marquez's FC Goa at the Maidaan in Gachibowli on Thursday, February 1, for their first game of the second phase of the ISL.
With all their major players leaving or in the process of exiting the club, the Yellow and Black are expected to play the rest of the season with a young all-Indian contingent.