JOVITO LOPES
PANJIM: Real Kashmir FC has been docked three points as their I-League match against Churchill Brothers has been declared as forfeited by the Appeals Committee of All India Football Federation (AIFF) in its order passed recently in New Delhi. With it, the order of AIFF’s Disciplinary Committee given on December 23 rejecting Churchill Bros’ protest, has been set aside.
Churchill Bros had preferred an appeal to the Appeals Committee as the AIFF’s Disciplinary Committee had rejected Churchill Bros’ protest against Real Kashmir for fielding an ineligible player in their I-League match played in Srinigar on November 28 last.
Churchill Bros had filed a protest against Real Kashmir after losing the match their I- League match 0-1 stating that there was a violation on the rule concerning fielding of foreign players. It was pointed out that as per the relevant rule, “A club can register a maximum of six foreign participating players after the completion of international registration formalities. Of these six, one should compulsory be a national of an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) member association. A team can start a match with a maximum of six foreigners (5 plus one Asian) in the match day squad (starting 11 plus 10 substitutes). Further, on field, at any given point of time, a participating club can only field upto four foreign players. In the event that the participating club fields more than three (but not more than four) foreign players, then in such instance, the participating club shall ensure that at least one player out of the four foreign nationals is a national of an AFC member association country.”
The bone of contention in Churchill Bros’ protest was that Real Kashmir had fielded an Asian player to start with and that subsequently in the 63rd minute the Asian player was substituted by a non-Asian player, who was a foreigner. Hence the club alleged that their opponents had played for three minutes with four foreigners.
Real Kashmir realised their mistake and a new substitution slip was given as the team manager realised that he had accidentally and mistakenly mentioned the name of the substitute, which was now sought to be corrected. It was mentioned that he, the wrongly substituted player was on the field only for two minutes and that too on account of the decision of match officials which was forced upon the club, it was explained.
The Disciplinary Committee which had two sittings consisted of chairman Vaibhav Gaggar, Aniruddha Jairam, Prahalad Bhat, Soumitra Bose and Mahesh Thakur (the other member, Brahmanand Sankhwalkar was present only for the first meeting), pronounced the order: “After perusing the protest letter, the Match Commissioner’s report, the charge notice, reply from Real Kashmir and other material including videographic evidence, fresh responses and other relevant aspects of the matter carefully, the Disciplinary Committee set it aside.”
The order stated that “the substitution as claimed by Churchill Bros in their protest had never come into effect and that as such the allegation levelled by Churchill Bros was liable to be set aside.”
Churchill Bros filed an appeal seeking relief with the Appeals Committee which summoned the Match Commissioner, the Match Referee and the fourth official, in which it was observed that the substitution procedure was completed. The Committee perused the video recording and found that the video evidence presented and analysed is not conclusive as to whether or not the concerned player had entered and the other player, to be substituted, had left the pitch. As such, they relied on the evidence given by the match officials.
The Appeal Committee stated: “The Disciplinary Committee had erred in its interpretation of the evidence placed before in concluding that one particular player had entered the field and the other had left the pitch because this is not apparent from the video evidence and also that it is not borne out by the submission of the match officials, which in fact indicates the contrary and further, as a result of this erroneous interpretations, its framing of the issue for its own consideration was also erroneous.”
Consequently, the Appeals Committee in its order dated February 11, stated: “The appeal of Churchill Bros is allowed. The match is forfeited by Real Kashmir. As a consequence, three points are taken away from Real Kashmir and awarded to Churchill Brothers FC. Further, a fine of Rs 60,000 is imposed upon Real Kashmir. The appeal fee of Rs 1,20,000 shall be reimbursed to Churchill Bros FC.”
The Appeal Committee comprised Akshay Jaitly, chairperson, Anil Kshatriya, Vrinda Bhandari (both vice-chairpersons). N Pradeep, member, was present only for the first hearing.
