Kochi | Hundreds of aspiring young footballers, who reached Kochi to take part in the selection trials for the Kerala Blasters FC, were not allowed to enter the ground on Monday morning as the District Sports Council decided to keep the gates locked alleging non-payment of rent due from the club. The District Sports Council, which manages the Panampilly Nagar government school ground, kept the gates locked but was later opened after the intervention of Sports Minister V Abdurahiman.

Sources said the tussle between the District Sports Council and the State Sports Council has resulted in the issue in which hundreds of youngsters and their parents faced the brunt.

Ruling CPI(M) MLA P V Sreenijin, who heads the district sports council said the club has not paid its dues as per an agreement with it for the past eight months.

However, the State Sports Council denied this allegation and said all the dues were paid till last April and the permission was given to the Club to conduct the trials.

State Sports Council president U Sharaf Ali said the locking of the gates was not right as the ground comes under the state Sports Council.

"The Blasters have paid the dues till last April to the Kerala state sports council and we have given them the permission to use the ground. The permission to give the stadium was based on an agreement with the Kerala sports council...Don't know why this happened," Ali said.

Sreenijin, however, justified the locking of gates and blamed the KBFC and said they should have informed the District Sports Council about the trials at least two days before.

"They invited people from across the state without informing us. Blasters are responsible for this confusion. The District Sports Council had two years ago entered into an agreement with the Blasters based on which every month they used to pay Rs 1,10,000 to the council. However, they have not paid anything in the last eight months," Sreenijin said.

The KBFC has not yet reacted to the incident.

Later, upon the intervention of the Sports Minister, the ground was opened and the trials began. Aspiring young footballers between the ages of 5 and 17 were invited to participate in the scholarship trials by the Kerala Blasters FC's Young Blasters Sporthood Academy (YBSA).

The trials are being held at nearly 60 of the active 80 training centers across the state.

Based on merit, selected candidates will be offered up to 50 per cent of the scholarship on academy fees, providing them with an opportunity to join YBSA and pursue their passion for football.

The academy has so far trained more than 9,000 students in Kerala who are under the age of 18 and are expanding the training footprint by partnering with schools across Kerala in the academic year 2023-24.