East Bengal have terminated all the existing contracts, citing ‘Force Majeure’ amidst the Covid pandemic. After facing the big blow, the dejected players have now gone to Football Players Association of India (FPAI) for help. FPAI promised full support to the players and assured to refer the case to the world body for players. FPAI took to its Twitter handle: “No club can prematurely terminate contracts with players because of the pandemic. There has to be a mutual understanding and the player must agree to it.”
“This is true, they have terminated our contracts citing COVID-19 pandemic (Force Majeure). The entire team disagrees with that decision, we hope to reach an agreement soon. We are working on that,” said Jaime Santos Colado East Bengal’s top Spanish winger. Colado, the 24-year-old, has still two more years’ contract left. Some of the foreign players are already worried because they are stuck in the lockdown and cannot return to their homes. “We are trying to go home, but no club or embassy is helping us at the moment,” a desperate Colado added. The decision of termination is like pushing the players ‘out of the frying pan into the fire’. FPAI also mentioned in their tweet that the decision was unjust.
