With joy comes challenges for Kenkre FC

I-League debutants’ director Joshua Lewis stresses on staying mentally fit during the three-and-a-half-month event; bio-secured bubbles will be tough for players, he says

Mumbai’s Kenkre Football Club is all set to make their I-League debut this year. But much of their pre-event challenges centre around limited time to tune up. Kenkre FC was announced as the replacement team for the I-League after All India Football Federation (AIFF) barred former champions Chennai City FC from playing as they failed to comply with the Club Licensing Regulations.

Starting December 26, I-League will be played across three venues—the Mohun Bagan Ground in Kolkata, the Kalyani Stadium in Kalyani and the Naihati Stadium in Naihati. Thirteen teams along with the referees, officials and volunteers will be inside bio-secured bubbles in four different hotels in Kolkata. Lewis said the team will have to enter the bubble 10 days prior to their first match which is on December 31 against Real Kashmir FC (at Kalyani). "On Saturday [December 4] we got a formal confirmation that we will make our I-League debut this season. We were aware that there could be a possibility of us playing after the situation with Chennai City FC. But we need to start our preparations for a lot of things simultaneously. We barely have 10 days," the club's director Joshua Lewis told www.mid-day.com.

Joshua Lewis, director of Kenkre Football Club

He explained that since the team played in a bubble during the I-League qualifiers for a month, the challenge will be to be mentally prepared to be there for a longer duration. "To enter the bubble, there are three RT-PCR tests conducted for all the players and staff [10th, 7th and 3rd day]. While the bubble period during the qualifiers was for a month, this time it is going to be around three-and-a-half months. That is going to be pretty challenging. The players and staff need to be mentally fit," Lewis remarked.

Lewis wished for better times wherein fans could come and watch them play. "Out of the squad of 30 players, 23 of them are from Maharashtra. Since the core of players have played in the 2nd Division I-League, and they have been inside a bubble for a month, now they need to be for three and a half months. The last time a team from Mumbai played was in 2017. Two teams [Mumbai FC and DSK] withdrew from the I-League. So now, there is some hope for Mumbai. This is the first year for us in the competition and we would have liked the situation to be different and see fans come to see us play, but due to the situation [COVID-19] and times are extraordinary…we cannot do much. Coach Akhil Kothari has been retained and our foreign player from Cameroon, Zacharie Mbenda is there too. We have a quota of three foreign players and one Asian player. We are in the process of recruiting and we shall close by this weekend. We shall recruit only if we feel they will add value to the team," added Lewis.

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