kolkata its a well known fact now that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has hit the global economy hard and the sporting world is also not immune to the crisis eitherback home imphalbased ileague side neroca fc already struggling with the clubs finances even before the start of recently concluded 201920 season have been hit harder by the covid19 conundrum when classic group ceased to be the principal sponsor after the conclusion of 201819 season the club management ran from pillar to post in search of sponsors so that they can continue to take part in the then premier football competition of the country and hong kongbased company living3d came to their rescuehowever as the company who trades in us otc markets is unable to send money due to the lockdown the club management has not been able to pay many players including the foreigners their last couple of months salarytalking to stoi from imphal neroca president thangjam arunkumar singh explained the situation saying the money coming from our sponsorship deal with living3d is mainly allocated for the foreigners as well as senior indian players salary and the running of clubs infrastructure while money coming from other sponsors is used to pay the local junior players and running of clubs academybecause of the worldwide lockdown the company living3d is facing a huge loss moreover the company officials are stuck in malaysia where they went for business purpose just before the lockdown started and now they are unable to return to hong kong as international flights are still not operational on most routes so they are unable to send us money for the last couple of months that has in turn made it impossible for us to pay the foreigners and some other players their salaries for the last couple of monthssome local players salary is also pending as we are unable to function normally because of the complete lockdown here in manipur banks are also shut from day 1 of lockdown here we are providing all of them a small amount of money like pocket money or so now arunkumar addedright now neroca have five foreign players on the roster malian ousmane diawara boubacar diarra trinidad tobagos taryk sampson marvin phillip goalkeeper and ghanaian forward philip adjah who are stuck in a team hotel in imphal hungarian midfielder attila busai left for home after being released just before the lockdownasked how and when they will be able to clear the players dues arunkumar said we are in constant touch with living3d officials they have assured us they will send the dues as soon as they reach hong kong and take stock of their finances we hope to clear players salary by the end of next monthmeanwhile the players have been very understanding and that has given the club management a huge relief all are pretty aware of the situation and everything is very transparent from our end we have communicated the situation to the players and they understand our