No third-fourth place match in Millennium Cup

The last minute pull-out of a few teams and heavy financial losses have forced the cancellation of the third-fourth positional match in the Sahara Cup Millennium football tournament.

"The last minute pull-out of a few teams and the failure to honour the contractual oblilgation of sending the national 'A' team by most of the countries has led to heavy financial losses for the sponsor. We had no option but to scrap the match to reduce the loss,'' All India Football Federation president Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi told a press conference in Calcutta on Tuesday.

He said the organising committee has already sent letters to the general secretary of Asian Football Confederation and FIFA in this regard.

Dasmunshi said the withdrawal of top teams like Cameroon, Columbia and Iraq financially affected the organisers as many of the sponsors pulled out.

Dasmunshi said Chile and Yugoslavia had entered into an agreement to send their National 'A' teams but failed to honour the contract which put the organisers in an embarrassing situation.

''We felt cheated, humiliated and embarrased. We told the Chilean delegation that they had not brought the team they had promised and it was within our right to scrap the match,'' he said.

He said the National Organising Committee had consulted the match commissioner and the referee, inspector of AFC, before taking the decision.

The AIFF, he said, would try to compensate the huge losses incurred by the sponsors through other means.

''They have honoured all their commitments despite the losses. We will try to compensate the losses through other tournaments.