I-League: I feel sorry for 'sold out' comment: Mohun Bagan AC coach

Bengaluru: Mohun Bagan coach Sanjoy Sen today apologised for making inappropriate comments against the All India Football Federation (AIFF) but felt it sometimes becomes necessary to make the authorities understand the problems teams face over scheduling of matches.

"At the heat of the moment, my comments were too critical ... I felt sorry, I replied that way also. Sometimes, someone needs to say something to make authorities concerned understand the difficulties teams face due to certain scheduling," Sen told reporters here.

Sen was issued a show cause notice by the federation after he called AIFF "sold out". Sen said he is replying tomorrow to the notice but refused to divulge what he is going to write.

AIFF had, in the first week of this month, had issued a show cause notice after Sen burst out for not rescheduling the match between Mohun Bagan and DSK Shivajians as his team had to fly out to China to play in the second qualifying round of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League.

Instead of the match being put on hold, its start was advanced by two hours. Mohun Bagan crashed out of the AFC Champions League after losing 0-6 to Luneng.

"Which team is playing 11 matches in 30 days? We played, and playing so many matches, without rest, is inhuman and kills the team and boys also," he said.

Replying to a query, Sen said why shouldn't there be Indian coaches instead of foreign ones when they win trophies for their respective clubs.

"When we Indian coaches can win trophies for our respective clubs, why not have them? Why should have foreign coaches, though I respect people like Ashley Westwood. Indian coaches, I wouldn't say are better, but are on par with them," he said.