Goan community boos referee for partial supervision
Qadsia…2 Churchill…1
KUWAIT, MAY 12
Churchill Brothers went down fighting to Qadsia 1-2 and bowed out of AFC Cup championship in Kuwait tonight.
Qadsia were leading 2-0 at half time with both goals being scored through headers by Ahmed in 33rd minute and Hamed in the 42nd minute of a free-kick
Churchill should have reduced the margin in the 44th minute through a header by Odafa, but the referee surprisingly ruled it as off side.
The referee was booed by the strong Goan crowd since he blatantly favoured the Kuwait team.
Churchill put up a brilliant display and gave the Kuwait team a hard time.
Churchill came back strongly in the second half and reduced the margin in the 60th minute through captain Odafa who scored a splendid goal.
However, in the end a biased refereeing led to the downfall of Churchill.
The Goan crowd which came to support the Churchill Brothers team congratulated them for their splended porformance and felt that referee had denied them a sure victory if not a draw.
The Churchill Brothers defense played an outstanding match with goalkeeper Arindam coming up with some excellent saves.
With this win Qadsia have qualified for the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, PWD Minister Churchill Alemao who is the patron of the team said that he would be taking up the matter of totally baised refeering with the AFC and FIFA more so as the three officials were all from Bahrain which is another Gulf country. If this trend continues Churchill stated that he will have to think about continuing in the future.
