Tolgay Ozbey refutes all allegations made against him

Tolgay Ozbey addressed a press meet held at the Calcutta Sports Journalist Club today evening. He gave a copy of the contract paper signed with East Bengal for the season 2011-12 to the journalists along with the mails exchanged between him and IFA and East Bengal club.

Tolgay read out the clauses of contract with East Bengal club where it is clearly written that "This agreement has been effected up to the end of the football season. The season shall mean the last competitive match that is prescribed by IFA for the conduct of the League within any 12 month period, including any pre or post season tournament or knockout cup competition organised and sanctioned by IFA, AIFF, AFC and FIFA. It can be up to May or June 2011 or as per situation."

Since the football season has already finished, Tolgay rightly said today, "My contract with East Bengal has officially finished at 5:30 p.m. on 14th of May, the day East Bengal played their last match against Mohammedan Sporting. After that, right now I am a free player and can sign contract with any club. Though I still haven't signed any contract with Mohun Bagan club, I will definitely be wearing the green and maroon jersey in the coming season. If I wished, I could have signed contract with Mohun Bagan after May 14th."

He clearly said that, "I have not taken any cheque either from East Bengal or from any club in India for the 2012-13 season. I last received my salary cheque from East Bengal in the first week of April and that was the final payment due from the Club to me for 2011-12 season as per my contract with the Club. However, yesterday, I was informed by my bank (Axis Bank at Salt Lake) that East Bengal was trying to send some money to my Bank Account but they were unsuccessful in that attempt."

When asked if this amount can be his monthly salary, he jokingly said, "If Rs. 29,99,970 was my monthly salary, I would have been conducting this press conference sitting in Miami."

He also said that he has not signed any voucher other than the salary payment for the season 2011-12. He had a simple question, "Can a club pay advance to a player for the new season without signing any contract? I am asking the East Bengal officials to produce either the original contract that they allege to have signed with me for the new season."

Tolgay said that he was surprised to receive an email on the 15th of May from East Bengal club which threatened him with disciplinary action and also asked him not to leave Kolkata without obtaining prior permission of the Club. Regarding this, he said, "The Club has no right to detain me in this manner since I am a free player now as per the contract with East Bengal club."

He termed these allegations as baseless and said these are being done to defame his reputation in Kolkata. He looked dejected when he said, "I have given everything for this club over the last 2 years, even scored 4 goals in the last match that I played on the 14th of May, but what these few officials of East Bengal are doing, this is against the spirit of football. However, I would like to say that I have nothing against the supporters of the club who had always given me great support in the last 2 years. Only 2-3 officials are behind all this."

When asked about James Morgan, he said, "Trevor Morgan is a thorough professional and he will never ever do such a thing. I have shared this problem with him a couple of days back."

He continued, "This is not the first time this has happened in East Bengal club. In the past, players like Snehasish Chakraborty, Amit Das, John Dias and few others faced the same problem when they made various allegations against East Bengal officials."

When asked about the status of his token, he said, "What is a token? Seriously, I have got no idea about this. I have never seen it in my life." According to rule of IFA, a token is a property of the player and should be kept with him and is to be produced during signing in IFA office, but it seems East Bengal officials did not bother to give the token to Tolgay Ozbey.

Tolgay also kept his faith with IFA as he said, "I will go to AIFF or FIFA if it is not solved by IFA, but I am very much confident that IFA will solve my problem within 1-2 days."

Regarding his target in next season's derby match, he smilingly said, "I will try to give my best for Mohun Bagan and will definitely try and help them to win trophies. Derby matches are alwaysvery special. As a striker, I will try to score goals or at least help assist my teammates to score."

Tolgay Ozbey also produced evidence which proved that his agent also did not receive his Agent's fee from East Bengal.

He ended the press conference by saying, "This will be my final press conference on this issue. Will see you all when Mohun Bagan starts their preseason training in July."

Later, General Secretary Anjan Mitra said, "Tolgay is a free player according to his contract with East Bengal club. He will be signing our contract papers within few days time."

When asked, why Mohun Bagan officials hurriedly called the press meet on 14th evening regarding Tolgay, Anjan Mitra jokingly said, "Tolgay became a free player after the end of that match. I think we were few hours late in calling the press conference. Immediately after the end of the match, we could have announced our decision to take Tolgay somewhere near the Salt Lake Stadium instead of bringing him all the way to Hungerford Street."