“We’ve lost a battle, not a war” says Jose Ramirez Barreto. Sangram Mukherjee seconds him. Mohunbaganclub.com shares the vision with the players – this is the team that gave us 10 consecutive wins , this is the team that gave us the Federation Cup and the Kolkata League.

Mohunbaganclub.com and the supporters are upset after losing 3 vital points and slipping to 2nd position. We lost to a team that failed to win against us in 9 consecutive matches – and remember the last time we lost – was when Bhaichung Bhutia’s goal was rejected. And guess what- Dinesh Nair was officating the match on 11th September 2007 – the last time Mohun Bagan went down to the city club.

In two occasions Nair made Bagan play 10-men, though Bagan won both the matches. In the last match – Nair booked Bhaichung Bhutia for he was tackled from behind by Mehrajuddin Wadoo.  Instead of a penalty Bhaichung got a booking and will not be available for the next game. There were occasions when Deepak and Ishfaq were fouled and Nair ignored. The second goal conceded was from a free kick that was never there – Nair awarded this free kick to the  city club (Mohunbaganclub.com also congratulates Syed Rahim Nabi who made all the differences in this match)

Mohunbaganclub.com has learnt that the Club Officials are sending video footage to AIFF, and would request AIFF to see the standard of referring. The officials will request AIFF not to let Nair officate any of the Bagan matches in future.

In fact it started from the 4th minute when Ishfaq got a ball inside opposition box, and Nair whistled against Ishfaq – neither was Ishfaq off side, nor did he handle the ball.  The same referee seemed to cancel a clean goal that helped a Goa club earn a point in this i-League.

Nevertheless, Nair or no Nair, Mohunbaganclub.com and all the fans and supporters of Mohun Bagan – world wide – stand beside the players and wish them success.

Go Bagan – Go and win the remaining matches and give us the i-League!

The 114th edition of the historic IFA Shield will most likely start from 25th August 2009 and the final will be held on 10th September, 2009. Today in a press meet at IFA Office, Secretary Mr. Utpal Ganguly said that AIFF has included IFA shield and Durand Cup in their yearly calendar. IFA is also trying to bring English Premier League Teams like Everton or Stoke City to play in the Shield. There will be either 1 foreign team if total number of teams is 8, or it may become 2 if total team participating in Shield becomes 10. Mr. Ganguly also told that from this year IFA Premier League and Super league will be merged with 17 teams total and will start in the first week of October. After 28th Feb, Kolkata Teams in the current I-League will play their rest of the home matches at Barasat Stadium.
COURTESY: www.kolkatafootball.com

11.9.2007 – that was the last time Bagan went down aganst KingfisherEast Bengal 2-3, as bhaichung Bhutia’s goal was cancelled by referee K. Shankar. After that Bagan went for a dream run and remained unbeaten for 9 matches. But Syed Rahim Nabi had finally led his club to break the jinx on 22.2.2009

Nabi played pretty well today  having scored 2 goals in the first half and had the final pass to Sunil Chettry who scored the third. Bagan went down 0-3. That means, Bagan went down in the 2nd position of the iLeague, and Sporting clube de Goa moved up. That also means sharing the platform with Manchester United of 11 consecutive wins – came to an end.

Not only Nabi, Yakubu, Abhra Mandal and M. Suresh played really well for KEB today. Bagan failed to break the KEB defense – as either Suresh or Abhra was there to stop Bagan from scoring. One should give full credits to Subhash Bhawmik’s team for this scoreline.

At the same time AIFF must review and see whether the referring standard of this game was up to the mark. There were some mistakes – and was all of them unintentional ? For e.g. Bhaichung  Bhutia was trapped inside the penalty box by Mehrajuddin but surprisingly the referee instead of awarding a penalty , booked Bhainchung. The second goal KEB scored was from a free kick that was gifted to KEB by the referee. There were few other occasions where the referee allowed KEB players to play act – waste time and earn free kicks. Throw-in for Bagan were converted to free kicks for KEB.

Besides, the midfield really flopped and defense seem to e fragile. Karim needs to repair this fast since Bagan will be facing Churchill next – and won’t get Bhaichung Bhutia’s service thanks to Dinesh Nair.