Kolkata: Just a day after after demanding three points for the ‘refereeing gaffe’ that had occurred during their goalless draw against Chennai City, Mohun Bagan official Debasish Dutta once again wrote to the All India Football Federation (AIFF), this time pointing to the regionalism of the panel of referees in their match against Gokulam FC.
R Palmson Moses Raj was the referee in the match between Mohun Bagan and Gokulam Kerala and Dutta alleged that Raj made severe errors including a penalty claim in the 35th minute.
“….the panel of referees were from the southern part of India, we had our hunch that things might go awry and unerringly our intuition was comprehended. It is necessary to make an official complaint about the performance of referee Mr. Palmson Raj,” Dutta wrote to Kushal Das, a copy of which was also forwarded to I-League CEO Sunando Dhar.
The match played here in Kolkata was won by the visitors 2-1, but according to Dutta, “Mr Palmson struggled to keep up with the tempo of the game and was often ahead of the play in order to keep up, resulting in wrong decisions and missed fouls.”
The letter then lists the second horrendous mistake Raj made when he issued a warning yellow to Bagan striker Dipanada Dicka for handling the ball.
“If you look at the TV recording Dicka had clearly chested the ball down,” the Bagan director wrote in the letter, which ended with a question to the AIFF on whether the referee Raj should be given more games.
Dutta also criticised the AIFF disciplinary committee’s decision to revoke a referee decision, mentioning that he in 20 years of football had never seen such a thing happen. The committee this Sunday had revoked Edwin Vanaspaul’s red card in the match between Chennai city and the Mariners.
This was because the referee made a mistake of sending-off the wrong person. Instead of showing the red to Tarif Akhand for a second bookable-offence, the referee asked Vanaspaul to march-off.