By Mark Baber
January 17 – The fall-out from December’s violence at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kalkutta when a player was badly injured by a rock thrown from the crowd, is continuing to cause controversy.
Mohun Bagan refused to take to the field and continue play after the player was injured and police
had to baton charge the crowd to restore public order. The club were subsequently banned for not completing the match by the Indian Premier League.
On appeal the sanction of a two year ban was reduced to a fine and Mohun Bagan was cleared to
complete its fixtures but with its league total set back to zero.
But for fierce local rivals, the East Bengal club who were playing Mohun Bagan, the matter has not rested there. Kalyan Mazumder, general secretary of the Kingfisher East Bengal Club, has accused the All-India Football Federation publically of acting in an “under hand and/and or under the table modus”.
The All India Football Federation has reacted equally strongly with a statement saying: “It appears that serious aspersions and imputations have been made against All India Football Federation and its officials directly and by innuendo by Mr. Kalyan Mazumder, inter alia, to the extent that the decision of the Executive Committee in respect of and arising out of Reference by Mcdowell Mohun Bagan was obtained through ‘under hand and/and or under the Table modus’.
“Such aspersions have been made through print media publications with the clear intent to denigrate and defame the All India Football Federation and its responsible Office Bearers which would cause damage and serious prejudice to the reputation, image, credibility and goodwill of the AIFF.”
The AIFF in its statement says it has taken note of the “uncalled for and malicious defamatory statements, which are in clear breach of the AIFF Disciplinary Code as well as the AIFF Code of Ethics and accordingly necessary actions is being initiated against Mr. Mazumder, the General
Secretary of Kingfisher East Bengal Club.”
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