Poverty forces footballers to turn thieves

Jharsuguda (Odisha): Once they were respected and honoured as champion footballers. Their photographs often adorned newspapers as they lifted trophies. However, today they are a bunch of disgraced characters. Unable to afford decent clothes because of their poverty, these footballers committed burglary at a ready made shop. However they have been arrested. Police arrested 11 of them on Friday and seized several stolen pairs of clothes from them while another is still at large. All of them are members of the Kadupada football team of Belpahar, police said. Police said these footballers from Kadupada had come to practice at the TRL stadium on July 15. On seeing the shop selling ready made garments, they hatched a plan to commit burglary.