Calcutta: The tussle between East Bengal and Mahindra United for Surkumar Singh has taken a new turn.

The player had taken a transfer to the Mumbai team and East Bengal’s appeal against it — saying he was obliged to play for them — lobbed the issue into the court of the AIFF players’ status committee.

The committee members met here on Tuesday and refused to grant a transfer. They had “prima facie evidence that the player had signed for both clubs and collected money from the two”.

Surkumar’s case has now been referred to the AIFF disciplinary committee and he can’t be registered with any club before a fresh decision is taken.

Though such issues aren’t usually solved in a hurry, AIFF secretary Alberto Colaco said it will be dealt with “as soon as possible.”

Officials said Surkumar will now have to appear for “personal hearings” with representatives of the concerned clubs.

The players’ status committee members present were its chairman Tempo Bhutia, Debashish Banerjee and Anthonu Botelho.

Surkumar, who spent a season with Mahindra before returning to East Bengal in 2003-2004, had made his club debut with the city giants as a TFA cadet in 2000-01.

Meanwhile, the national under-17 team will leave Delhi on Wednesday for a preparatory trip to England where they will play four matches including a few against the academy side of Leicester City.

The team has qualified for the main round of the AFC under-17 meet to be played in Japan in September. P.K. Banerjee is the technical director with Suresh Babu and Carlton Chapman as coaches. The under-17 players will also watch East Bengal in action in the Leicester City 120th anniversary meet.

OTHER ANNOUNCMENTS

• IMG holds telecast rights for the Sept. 8 pre-World Cup match between India and Japan in Calcutta.

• Santosh Trophy in Kerala from Oct. 14-31.

• Federation Cup in Bangalore from Nov. 20-30.

• National League to start after Dec. 7.