One of the few incidences where a referee fixed a football match was proven in the Liverpool Inter Milan European Cup semi final in 1965.

Inter scored direct from an indirect free kick and also by kicking tho ball out of the hands of the Liverpool goalkeeper to go through.

The referee was seen drinking champagne with the Inter side later. the referee subsequently admitted he’d been bribed. It had happened the year before too at the San Siro when Dortmund had a key player sent off. in 1966 a Hungarian referee refused to accept a bribe and Real Madrid held on to win the trophy.

In theory, it’s plausible. Referees can be bribed  in games they are officiating.

The big question is- whether Dinesh Nair was bribed before the Federation Cup final ? I don’t think you will ever have an answer to the same. Nair, whose decisions have always been controversial – will perhaps never face any investigation by Indian Football’s highest body. No case will ever be lodged and no raids will take place to check if his assets are disproportionate to his known sources of income. No investigation will take place to check what was he doing the last 48 hours before the Federation Cup final and his call list will never be verified.It will never be proved that whether he is corrupt or whether he is biased against Mohun Bagan.

End result – the team who deserved a win, who scored twice, whose players were tripped off inside the penalty box – have lost a game 0-1 and lost the chance to qualify for AFC.

Meanwhile Mohun Bagan has sent a letter to the President of AIFF for the poor refereeing standard –

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Dated: 4th October 2010

The President

All India Football Federation

Football House

New Delhi

Dear Sir,

Our Club, Mohun Bagan Athletic Club is one the oldest Clubs of Asia and has a rich history and tradition. Our Club has won the Federation Cup 13 times, a feat not achieved by any other Club in India. We are a fan based club and have millions of supporters and members of spread all over the globe. We hope that it has already come to your notice that two genuine goals scored by McDowell Mohun Bagan were disallowed by the Match Officials during the Final match of the 32nd Federation Cup held on 2nd October 2010 at Barabati Stadium, Cuttack. Both the goals were scored at critical junctures of the final match. While Ashim Biswas’s goal at the fag end of the 1st half would have helped McDowell Mohun Bagan take the lead, Muritala’s goal would have helped take the lead with just 10 minutes to go for the final whistle. In both cases, the goals were disallowed for reasons unknown to us. No whistle was blown or flag was raised while the process to score the goals were on. On both occasions opponent defenders and their goalkeeper made full attempts to prevent the ball from entering the goalpost. On both occasions just after players got in a huddle and started celebrating, did they notice that the goals were not given by the Referee Dinesh Nair. Moreover Chidi was brought down inside the penalty box and whistle was blown for infringement. However to everyone’s dismay only a free kick was awarded outside the penalty box.

Please also note that our player Muritala was shown the 1st yellow card because he had hit the ball after the whistle was blown by the referee for an infringement but when Kingfisher East Bengal’s Tolgey committed the same offence and volleyed the ball into the goal after the Referee blowed the whistle, he was only verbally cautioned and no card was shown to him. It is very important to note that during the Federation Cup 2007 held at Ludhiana, it was the same Dinesh Nair who disallowed a genuine goal scored by Bhaichung Bhutia during the semi final match at a crucial time when we were down 2-3 against Kingfisher East Bengal. We had reported the matter to AIFF and had also requested AIFF not to deploy him in any vital match of our Team. Moreover Dinesh is not a FIFA Referee so we wonder why he was deployed as the Referee of the final match of such a vital competition. It has been seen that referee postings are handled by some senior AIFF officials and only those in their good books get prized postings while other equally deserving are not considered for such important assignments. On the morning of the Final match, I myself met Mr. Ankur Dutta, Vice President of AIFF and Chairman of the Federation Cup Sub Committee and told him several times of my hunch that we would denied a win the Final match through Refereeing influenced by some senior officials of AIFF. You may please verify this from Mr. Ankur Dutta.

We have been unjustly prevented from winning the 32nd Fed Cup and it has also cost us the right to participate in the coveted AFC Cup 2010. This incident has tarnished the image of the Federation and the Tournament. So we urge you to please have a look at the recording of the match and judge the quality of Refereeing for yourself. If needed, we can forward you a copy of the match recording.

You have a dream of seeing the National Teams perform well at the International levels and our Senior National Team has embarked on exposure tours to Portugal and Dubai. The resources of the Federation are being mobilized for this purpose. We are very supportive of your efforts to take India forward in FIFA rankings and to ensure that India regains lost pride in International Football. Indian Football is moving in the right direction under your dynamic leadership. AFC also wants to make Indian Football totally professional and accordingly various criteria and benchmarks have been set for Clubs, players, coaches etc. However if the refereeing continues to be of such poor standard the entire momentum will be lost and the whole purpose will be defeated.

I take this opportunity to request you to please take appropriate steps against Dinesh Nair and the two other linesmen involved in this match. We understand that a new General Secretary is joining soon and so necessary steps need to be taken to uplift the standard of Refereeing in India.

Your earliest response in this regard is solicited.

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely,

Anjan Kumar Mitra

Managing Director

United Mohun Bagan Football Team

Copy:

• Mr. Subrata Dutta, Vice President, All India football Federation, Kolkata

• Mr. U.K. Ganguli, Hony. Secretary, IFA(WB), Kolkata

Referee Dinesh Nair does enough to make sure KEB wins the 32nd Federation Cup. 2 goals canceled – 2 penalty calls rejected, one red card and KEB retains the trophy. Bagan did enough but did not plan playing against 11 players and 3 match officials. At the same time Bagan deep defense should be held responsible for the goal Bagan conceded.

Cancellation of 2 goals for a team is not a very famililar scene in this type of match. But It happened due to Mr. Dinesh Nair, Referee of this match. Bagan fought well against 14 men rivals with 11 players and sometimes before end of the match with 10 players.

Just before end of the first half Ashim Biswas scored a brilliant goal from the edge of the box with a bullet shot and referee signaled it for goal but due to some unknown reason linesman signaled it offiside, but where is the offside Mr. Linesman? Please clarify it.

In the first half so called balanced team KEB looked like a defence oriented outfit while Bagan made the waves of attack to the opponent’s box. But didn’t capitalize from it.

In the 2nd half KEB made their way out to attack and got the goal from a Vasum grounder in the 53rd minute. Sk Azim again groped in front of attack like last match against Dempo. (0-1) And this made the scoreline in the final. But this might not be happened. If referee Dinesh Nair and linesman didn’t cancel the goal from a bi-cycle kick of Muritala Ali in the 73rd minute of the match. It was an unbelievable decision. Just few minutes before end of the match Muritala Ali  was shown  red card and got the marching order from Mr. East Bengal sorry Referee.

The match ends raising a lot of questions. How many goal Bagan has to score for winning the match or for making the goal valid. If god knows, expect match officialsand when the match officials get bit professional?

East Bengal: Sandip, Naoba, Nirmal, Okpara, Soumik, Vasum, Mehtab, Khabra( Ravinder 88′), Penn, Robin, Tolgey ( Ekene 77′).

Mohun Bagan: Shilton, Kinshuk, Sagram, Sk. Azim, Dhanarajan R, Diamondstar (Chidi 60′), Manish, Snehasish, Asim (Jayanta 74′), Barreto, Muritala

Referee: Dinesh Nair (Man of the match, alongwith other officials.)

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the fighting spirit to continue that counts” – perhaps that was the motto of Team Mohun Bagan when they took on Dempo Sports Club today in the semi final of Federation Cup. Amidst much of media attention and general interest to an age old national issue, a determined effort was expected from both the teams and the result was a nail biting finish after 120 minutes of battle followed by the penalty shoot out where Mohun Bagan emerged as the winner!! Kudos to the great game of football and hats off to the players, officials and fans, who fought it out till their last blood!!

If you believe in the proverb ‘morning shows the day’ then today is the day when you are wrong again as Ranty Martin of Dempo found the net within 2 minutes of the opening half before Mohun Bagan defense could consolidate and settle down. This was, indeed, a waking call for the team and the battle started there off. The same eleven, who were in the starting line up in the historic win against Salgaokar SC, came up with vengeance and started putting pressure on Dempo’s defense. However, Bagan failed to take complete control in the mid-field as Diamondstar and Ishfaq were somewhat off-colored today. As a result the ace strikers were not able to crack the defense of Dempo. A change in strategy was inevitable and  Bagan’s coach responded with two changes – Snehasis came in place on Ishfaq (36 mts) and then Chidi came in place of Diamondstar (51 mts). And the ailing patient suddenly got fresh oxygen as Chiddi found the net on 65th minute (1-1). Direct free kick was taken by Chidi from edge of the penalty box and goalkeeper was spectator only as he saw the ball kissed the net.

As the score got leveled, suddenly the body contact game became more physical as the players became more desperate to break the jinx, which resulted couple of warnings for both the teams. As the game progresses, the battle of nerves intensified and Shilton showed his class by saving his team on number of occasions.

Two of India’s best quality teams battled it out till 120 minutes before it went for the match in tie breaker. Just before end of the first half Sangram Mukherjee the tie-breaker specialist came in the field in the place of classic Shilton Pal. Shilton Pal, who was literally "wall of china" under the goal post in the match till 117th minute and saved his team from sure slaughter. Shilton was looked really upset that time and he left the field having a standing ovation from the crowd of Barabati. 

And in the Tie-Breaker Barreto, Chiddi, Gouranga, Snehasis and Muritala scored for Bagan while Ranty Beto and Godwin Franco scored for Dempo but Kalu’s shot was saved by Sangram Mukherjee. Bagan reached to the final of 32nd Federation Cup and will face arch rival Kingfisher East Bengal on Saturday, 2nd October. No doubt that the excellence of two goal keepers lift Bagan to the 32nd Federation Cup Final.

TEAMS

Mohun Bagan: Shilton Paul (Sangram Mukherjee, 119th), Kingshuk Debnath, Sangram Mandi, Sk Azim, R Dhanarajan, Ishfaq Ahmed (Snehasish Chakraborty 35th), Gauranga Dutta, Manish Maithani, Diamondstar (Edeh Chidi, 52nd), Jose Ramirez Barreto, Subair Murithala Ali.

Dempo: Laxmikant Kattimani, Ualeriano Rebello, Debabrata Roy, Dominic Roronha, John Dias,Peter Carualho (Joe Rodrigues, 72nd), Nicolau Borges (Godwin Franco, 92nd), Joaquim Abranches, Ranty Martins, Beto, Ogba Kalu.

Referee: Mohammed Kamil (Delhi).

Today’s Match – Fact Sheet At A Glance
Opponent team	Dempo Sports Club
Date	30-Sep-10
Stage	Semi final
Venue	Cuttack
Kick off time	6:00 PM
No. of goal Mohun Bagan scored	6 ( 1 + 5)
Opponent scored	4 (1 + 3)
Number of yellow card shown to MB Players	2 (Shilton, Gouranga)
Number of red cards shown to MB players	0
Average age of 1st 11	25.6 yrs
Average age of the squad (registered for Fed cup)	24.9 yrs
1st half Score	0 – 1
Style of formation	4 – 4 – 2
Substitutions
1	Snehasis in place of Ishfaq (36 mt)
2	Chiddi in place of Diamondstar (51 mt)
3	Sangram in place of Shilton (118 mt)