Houghton denies racial abuse charge as "baseless" before panel

New Delhi: National football coach Bob Houghton on Monday denied the racial abuse charges levelled

against him by the AIFF and termed them as "baseless" in the written submissions he made before a three-member panel of the national federation. He appeared before a panel of AIFF vice-presidents Subrata Dutta, Ankur Dutta and treasurer Hardev Jadeja and made written submissions on charges levelled against him, including that of allegedly abusing an Indian referee last year. AIFF general secretary Kushal Das was also present as ex-offico member at the hearing held at the federation headquarter here. The hearing lasted less than half an hour, with Houghton submitting his written submission to the charges made at the show cause notice issued on him on March 26 and the panel ruling to resume proceedings at a later date as the members would need time to study his reply. It is learnt that Houghton, who was accompanied at the hearing by Delhi-based advocate Anish Dayal, denied the racial abuse charges, and the panel has asked him to appear again later, with April 20 being the tentative date. "The panel will have to study Houghton`s reply and they have asked him to appear at a later date. The date will be decided by the panel and it will be informed to Houghton. But he has denied the racial abuse charges in his submissions," a top source said. Dayal told reporters that his client has a strong case and has submitted that all the charges against him are "baseless". "We have denied all the charges levelled against the coach. We have submitted that all of charges are baseless. We are expecting a fair decision," he said. "We have not mentioned anything about giving evidence against the charges. We will wait what the panel says in further proceedings," said Dayal, who is also the counsel of Indian Premier League side Rajasthan Royals. After the hearing is completed, the panel is expected to give its recommendations on actions to be taken, if any, to the executive committee which will take a final decision. Early last month, the executive committee had decided to initiate the process to sack Houghton on charges including remarks against referee Dinesh Nair during India`s friendly against Yemen in Pune in October last year and "derogatory" comments against Indian football. The Englishman was accused by Nair of calling him `b****** Indian referee`. He was issued a show-cause notice on March 26 why action should not be taken against him on several counts, ironically hours after he guided India to the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup final rounds. Houghton had denied the charge and the national players have also sent a signed letter to AIFF president Praful Patel in support of the coach. Houghton, who took over the senior Indian team in June 2006, is the first manager of the national football team to be issued a show cause notice by the AIFF. PTI