AIFF investigating South Korean club’s tour of India

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is trying to find out the details of a tour by a South Korean club Ansan Hallelujah FC to India. The 2006 K-League runners-up played three exhibition matches at Mumbai, Goa and Kerala in the month of January without the knowledge of the governing body of football in India.

“We didn’t have any clue about the club’s visit. We got to know only after the Kerala Football Association (KFA) reported about a match that took place in the state,” AIFF general secretary Kushal Das was quoted as saying. AIFF has now enquired the subject to the Korea Football Association to know whether the association had granted permission to the club to tour India and asked them to investigate on the tour.

If the Korea Football Association has not cleared the trip, the AIFF is planning to take the matter to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). “No club can play in India just like that. If the Korean body says they haven’t cleared the trip then we will take the matter to the AFC and ensure that the club faces disciplinary action,” Das said.

The Korean club played four matches in India; landing in the country on January 18, they played against the Mumbai Customs in Mumbai, then went on to play two matches against Archbishop’s Eleven at Goa. The club then traveled to play a Kerala Sports Coalition Eleven team on January 29, 2012 at the Nehru Stadium, Perinthalmanna in the district of Malappuram.

Several top Kerala players like NP Pradeep and SBT striker Asif Zahir were supposed to feature in the match, but withdrew their participation as the match was not sanctioned by the Kerala Football Association. Even then, the match featured household names like football legend IM Vijayan and former Santosh Trophy player Lanel Thomas, who was also one of the organizers of the event along with former Indian cricketer Tinu Yohannan and former Tamil Nadu footballer Jestes Antony. The match was conducted by a non-profit organization named Kerala Sports Coalition which is based at Kochi.

Ansan HFC also traveled to Bangalore to conduct a football clinic before flying back to South Korea on February 2. There were reports that the Kerala Football Association had warned IM Vijayan and are planning to take strict actions against Lanel Thomas for playing the match. Lanel was earlier cautioned by KFA for playing in a sevens football tournament in the state.

Ansan Hallelujah FC is a rare religious based club from Ansan in South Korea (like the Rangers FC and Celtic FC of Scotland). They play in the countries top tier football league which is the K-League and have finished second in the competition in 2006. They also won the cup in 2006 and Queen’s Cup (Thailand) in 2009. The team is currently coached by Lee Young M.

From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Monday 20 February 2012. The database copy of this article was lost; it was recovered in 2026 from the Internet Archive's saved copy of the live page.