You doubtlessly have heard by now of AIFF`s decision to charge Deepak for his clear slide in the JCT match. The charge leads to a two match suspension and fine of Rs. 10000. People can argue about semantics and make excuses all they like, but the fact is the referee violated the spirit of the game to provide an unfair advantage to some clubs.

However, AIFF have now given themselves an enormous problem with this action- the lid has been jimmied off the tin and the worms are crawling everywhere. One can only hope that the Nehru Cup was not rigged, and so is the iLeague. The case, arising from a marching order shown to Deepak Mandal in a match between Mohun Bagan and JCT in the iLeague, is rapidly becoming the talk of the town, since it has wider implications for the professional game. The video footage confirmed that the referee, Arumughan Rowan, was wrong in showing Deepak the second yellow card. Perhaps he was determined to make sure Deepak misses the match against Kingfisher East Bengal. His match report confirms that.

For the first time in Indian football history a refereeing error could have led to a successful appeal for a review. But perhaps AIFF wanted to avoid the dispute at the cost of Deepak Mandal and Mohun Bagan.

The implications are wide-ranging. Strictly speaking, any referee who does not qualify to the take proper decisions and vindictively reports wrongly such that a key player misses an important match, and the team could become the victim, was not even criticised by AIFF. Was that intentional ? Was AIFF worried that the said referee, whose decisions in Nehru Cup made sure an able team does not qualify in the final that India won, might open up his mouth! If this is the way football is heading, very soon the football house will all that we will be left with.

We would like to know on what basis Deepak was fined and suspended. First, the video footage shows clearly it was a normal clearance, no infringement was caused. Second, the charges of kicking and spitting on the refree is absurd and childish. There is absolutely no evidence of it either.

 If this is the way AIFF controls football and refrees and its players, excuse me while I fall down laughing.

Chief coach Karim Bencharifa exclaimed that referring is marring Mohun Bagan’s opportunity of winning the iLeague for the season. If the referring standard of today’s match is considered, one will have to sincerely accept his concerns. In this match referring is absurd and an authentic comedy leaving a lot to be desired. One wonders if there is any intension of AIFF to conduct some courses for match officials. Otherwise AFC could step in and intervene before the game of football is snatched away by out of the ground adjustments.

It is not easy to prove if some referees are compromised to benefit some teams but the way the game is handled lives little doubts. One can cite example of the soccer match between JCT and Mohun Bagan that have been poorly officiated to benefit the others. It is unfair to fans who sacrifice their money and efforts to support their teams but only to get frustrated by the irregularities normal committed by a referee whose intentions are questionable. The same referee’s poor decisions made Lebanon move out of Nehru Cup this year. Lebanon lodged official complain against him to AIFF.

Very few cases have called the attention of the federation in as far as disciplinary measures are concerned, with most going unnoticed or to be more realistic, ignored.  Poor referring can be a result of lack of skills. Refresher courses need to be frequently taken to capacitate them. They need to read more about the subject of referring to update themselves. 

In today’s match if Deepak’s marching order was comic, depriving Suraj of a penalty was a serious offense. 

Both Mohun Bagan and JCT tried their best to score. It was JCT who scored two goals in 46th and 56th minute respectively. Bagan defense sloppy shows were costly in both the occasions. Branco reduced the margin, but then Suraj was deprived of a penalty when he was pulled down. One can recall that Shilton was booked when he broke his leg.

Deepak got a marching order today while a Video footage will confirm that he wasn’t to be blamed for the incident. With Manju and Vasan out, Bagan will definitely have trouble in fielding a stopper beside Masih in the next match.

 After a barren first half, JCT took the advantage of complacency and sluggishness of our defense and scored their first goal immediately after lemon break. Time and again the left back position have been exposed as a weak link and oppositions have successfully utilized it. JCT’s second goal was also a defensive lapse as the defenders allowed opposition’s free movement in penetrative zone. Till then no one knew that worst was still to come for Mohun Bagan. Left back, MohanRaj got injured and was taken to the hospital. Right back, Zenith, was also injured in an aerial challenge. However, he came back after treatment. In the meantime Branco reduced the margin with a powerful shot from the edge of the penalty box. As MohunBagan went all out for equalizer, the referee played his part. First he deprived Suraj of a penalty, which was unthinkable. Then he picked his next victim, Deepak. Deepak’s offence was simple. He cleared a ball with a superb sliding tackle. It was a real comic one. Thousands of fans and supporters, who were present either in stadium or in front of TV screens, could not imagine such a blunder.

 Our coach and officials would sure have a tough time to pick first eleven for the next match as Barreto and MohanRaj are in injury list, Deepak, and Branco are unavailable due to card and players like Manju, Habibur, Sk.Azim etc are not yet fit.

 

Teams:

JCT: Karanjeet Singh , Jaspal Singh ,Sunil Kumar, Baljeet Singh Saini ( Pawan Kumar 88′),Jagpreet Singh, Daljeet Singh, Penn Orji , Daljeet Singh, Gurwinder Singh , Shakatar Singh (Jaswinder Singh 74′), Baldeep Singh Jr.

 

Mohun Bagan: Shilton Paul , Deepak Mondol , Zenith, Rakesh Masih, N. Mohonraj (Subho Kumar 69′), Mickey Fernandez (Suraj Mondol 58′),Marcos Pereira, Isfaq Ahmed (Snehasish Chakrabarty ), James Singh , Chidi Eden , Branco Cordozo.  

 

Bagan looses yet another final to Churchill Brothers. Mohun Bagan looses the 2nd Final of the year, the 114th Durand Cup also goes to Goa. The Mariners drew first blood in the 95th minute. A swerving freekick by Subhojit was headed home by Eddeh Chiddi.

From the beginning Churchill was dominating, whereas Bagan midfield failed to make any impact on the game. Their supply to the forward line was erratic and infrequent. This resulted in immense, pressure on Bagan defence, but they held out and Dipak led from the back and it must also be mentioned here that the Captain Sangram also led by example as he kept all Churchill attack out. Between that there were some counter attacks of Bagan but all were fruitless.

In the 11th minute of the match Odafa created a panic in Mariners defense while Masih cleared the ball. Snehasis saved a sure goal from goal line which was headed in by Kalu from 2nd corner in 38th minute.  Dipak in Mohun Bagan defense has shown some kind of solidarity, while Barreto in forward line was totally off-colour, it was evident that Barreto is not yet fully fit. In the 2nd half both teams got some chances to score but none got success.

 After end of regulation 90 minutes in Extra time Chiddi opened the account for Bagan at 95th minute of the match. The inswinging floater taken by Subhojit Majumder from direct free kick found Chiddi’s head and Chiddi made no mistake at all.

 The next 10 minutes saw a flurry of activity from Churchill, resulting in a brace from Odafa. That itself put the Mariners in a big enough hole. The situation was further aggravated by the fact that the central midfield position was not well controlled by them. Mickey was looking like a boy in the woods in his role of an attacking midfielder, while Kuluthungan was an abject failure in the role of a holding medio, he was out dribbled, out run and out smarted everytime.

 However, Karim saw it fit to persist with him, and instead took off Mohanraj to insert Branco. This given the fact that we were playing against the most lethal striker playing in India, the inevitable happened a few minutes later and the match was sealed by Odafa in the 109th minute with his hattrick. It is difficult to figure out the reason of persisting with Kulu especially when he wasn’t able to achieve much.

 It may also be said here that this midfield cannot hold out much hope for us in the oncoming I-League. This is the umpteenth time this year when we had taken the lead only to concede the match, a perfect example of flattering to deceive. Are we bringing the I-League home?

Teams:

Churchill Brothers SC
29-Arindam Bhattacharya, 8-Thokchom Naoba Singh (84′ 6-Sudhakaran Naveen Kumar), 4-Rowilson Rodrigues, 19-Gouramangi Moirangthem Singh, 17-Robert Lalthalma, 27-Charan Rai, 15-Nacimento Silveira (90′ 24-Lenny Rodrigues), 9-Ogba Kalu Nnanna, 11-Khanthang Paite (82′ 22-Jaison Vales), 10-Odafe Onyeka Okolie [C], 12-Reisangmei Vashum

Unused Substitutes:
31-Lalit Thapa, 5-L. Dhanachandra Singh, 30-Yumnam Jugeshor Singh, 37-Ashley Fernandes

Mohun Bagan AC
1-Sangram Mukherjee [C], 13-Irungbam Surkumar Singh, 4-Deepak Kumar Mondal, 20-Rakesh Masih, 27-Nallappan Mohanraj (106′ 12-Branco Vincent Cardozo), 16-James Lukram Singh (85′ 32-Subhodeep Majumdar), 26-Micky Fernandes, 17-Kalia Perumal Kulothungan, 25-Snehashis Chakraborty (67′ 7-Santha Kumar), 10-Jose Marcio Ramirez Barreto, 9-Chidi Edeh

Unused Substitutes:
31-Shilton Pal, 8-Subho Kumar, 19-Mashangva Genius Zenith, 28-Manish Mathani, 34-Sangram Mandi

Yellow Cards: Nacimento Silveira (42′, Churchill Brothers SC); Micky Fernandes (2′, Mohun Bagan AC)

Referee: P.K. Bose (Madhya Pradesh)