Mumbai: In a decision which shall show that the clubs in India won't be dictated terms by their Premier League counterparts, East Bengal, as reported by Goal.com, have opted to snub the chance to play with Blackburn Rovers next month.
Venky's, who own Blackburn, are believed to have approached the UB Group, whose brand Kingfisher sponsors East Bengal, to play an exhibition match against the Red and Gold's on a short notice of just over a month.
With as many as six players being on Indian national team duty and the foreign stars not expected to arrive before the first or second week of August, it was clear that the Kolkata giants wouldn’t change their plans in the pre-season just to avail a chance to play Blackburn in Mumbai's D Y Patil Stadium.
"There is nothing new to add though our coach Trevor Morgan decided not to play the game given that they want it to be held in the third week of July. But we are open to have the game sometime in August as by then our boys will be training and practicing together," Amit Sen, director of East Bengal, told Goal.com.
Last season East Bengal suffered for having played in far too many competitions which came to hurt their title hopes in the I-League. Should they have agreed upon the offer from Blackburn, the 2011-12 season would have started by them repeating the same mistakes all over again.
"There is no point in playing against Blackburn with a bunch of youngsters as I told you. It is certainly an honour for us but let's see," he added.
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