Well, my first reaction is that of shock. I have known Okolie Odafa for many years now and I have come across him as a family man and a god-fearing person.
The turn of events on Tuesday has left me shocked. In my 15 years of football career, this is the first time an event of such a magnitude has hit Indian football. I hope this will be a one-off case.
All the players involved are the top class. What do I think about the incident? Well, my first reaction is that of shock. I have known Okolie Odafa for many years now and I have come across him as a family man and a god-fearing person.
He doesn’t go clubbing, doesn’t actually like parties much and doesn’t interact much with girls. Odafa is known to be a rather shy person. Forget women, he sometimes feels shy to speak to men too! So he misbehaving with a woman is really surprising. I can’t believe it.
The other two, Kalu and Arindam, I really doubt if they had anything to do with the girl. What I’ve heard is they were actually involved in a scuffle with the male crew members, which has landed them in this mess. I feel for Arindam because he is one of the brightest young prospects for India. At 20, he has his full career ahead and I hope this won’t have a lot of bearing on it.
But I guess there has been miscommunication — a lot of it, actually. This is the best example of how a situation can get ugly if things are not handled peacefully and there is not much communication.
I hate to say but this might well be a case where they are targeted because of their colour. But in the capacity of the president of the Football Players Association of India, I extend my support to them. I would urge all the three of them to ignore this controversy. They should get over it as soon as possible.
(Baichung Bhutia is the captain of Indian football team & the president of Football Players Association of India. He spoke to Mihir Vasavda)
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