Bangalore, Oct 14: One of the country's oldest sports clubs run by Indian Telephone Industries (ITI), best known for its football team, is about to close down due to dearth of funds, a key official confirmed today. "We are moving in that direction as we have simply run out of funds," club president P B O Warjri told reporters here. "We will have to close down".
The explanation for shutting the club is understandable as the Bangalore-based telecom equipment major has been making huge losses in recent years.
ITI was a powerful football team in the earlier decades and they won the National Club title in 1977 winning the inaugural Federation Cup before fading away. The team showed signs of revival a few years back grabbing a place in the premier division national football league but was relegated to the second division last season.
Warjri also indicated that the ITI Football Club is up for grabs. "If there are interested parties, we are willing to hand over the football club," he said.
The club was also active in other sports, including hockey, volleyball, basketball and ball badminton, but those teams never rose to the heights of the football team, which gave ITI a national name.
A few years ago, ITI were state champions in about half-a-dozen disciplines in Karnataka.
Bureau Report