I-League: Real Kashmir's co-founder Shamim Meraj quits

NEW DELHI: Amid the madness of infiltrations, terror attacks and surgical strikes when a Kashmiri Muslim man and his Pandit friend joined hands to promote football in Kashmir, it was a moment when sport had blurred the invisible red lines that exist in the Valley, including those drawn by religion and politics.

Shamim Meraj

and

Sandeep Chattoo

formed

Real Kashmir FC

in 2016, and within a couple of years the club participated in the

I-League

(in 2018-19). The club finished third in its debut season and now is a force in Indian football.

On Monday, Shamim, who is the Editor of the Kashmir Monitor newspaper, informed TOI that he has ended his four-year association with Real Kashmir. He cited "personal reasons" for leaving the club.

"People come and go, but institutions should remain," Shamim said. He unequivocally rejected reports which suggested he left the club due to growing differences with the team management and that he didn't like coach David Robertson's style of football and wanted the club to adopt a more entertaining style. "These are juicy stories, nothing else," he stated.

Both Shamim and Chattoo refuted any discord between them. "Our friendship is still the same. That is unrelated to what we do professionally," said Shamim.

On his part, Chattoo said: "Both of us remain together. Only professionally, he has left us. He is as close to me as he was when he was part of RKFC. Personally, the Hindu-Muslim combine remains the same. We meet every other day... discuss the situation in the state."

"I tried to persuade him to continue, tried really hard... but I feel he had made up his mind last year only. Especially, when the Article 370 was revoked by the Centre in Jammu and Kashmir. You must have seen, I was all by myself in the last season," Chattoo elaborated.

Shamim and Chattoo formed the club in 2016 after witnessing the plight of the youth two years earlier during the devastating 2014 floods in Kashmir. Most playgrounds were submerged and the youngsters were directionless. They bought some footballs and handed them out, aiming to give the youth a productive way to pass time. The community initiative gradually transformed into a professional football club.