JOIN USFirst day, no show as refs fail to turn up
Opening day’s matches in Bangalore District Football Association’s Super Division and ‘A’ Division leagues had to be postponed on Monday with the referees failing to report for the games.
The ‘A’ Division was to kick off with a match between RBI and LRDE at 1.30 pm while BEML and CIL were to clash in the first match of the Super Division at 3.30 pm.
With the referees not turning up, the BDFA officials had no choice other than to call off the match, leaving a good number of fans disappointed.
The referees’ absence triggered speculation that they were protesting against the BDFA’s inaction after referee Andrew was manhandled by players of Jupiters FC in a ‘B’ Division match on February 28. A payment dispute too was touted as another reason but BDFA chairman M P Swamy and secretary S T Bhoopal rejected it and said matches will be held as per schedule from Tuesday.
Bhoopal said action had already been initiated against three players, coach and secretary of Jupiters FC.
“Three players — M Vinod, Rajesh, V K Harish — along with coach-cum-player Manimaran have been suspended for three years and barred from all football-related activities while secretary Devoo has been suspended for a year,’’ he said.
The decisions were taken at the BDFA Disciplinary and Managing Committee committee meeting on March 1.
Meanwhile, Karnataka State Football Association’s Referees Board chairman M S Krishnamurthy said officials assigned for Monday’s matches were held up elsewhere. “Suresh (who was to do the first match) was in Electronic City for a job interview and was not able to make it to the ground while Tony (another referee) was late for the match,’’ he added. Krishnamurthy said the third official for the match, Bhaskar, was absent as he had to attend a government test while fourth referee Sampath’s phone was switched off and there was no information on him.
On the Super Division match, Krishnamurthy said referee Andrew could not make it because of personal reasons. “Andrew’s son met with an accident in the morning and he had to attend to him,’’ he said. “Bala, the second referee for the game, is an HR Manager with an MNC and he could not leave his office before 4:30 pm. George, the third referee for the game, was down with a hamstring injury after he officiated in the All-India Civil Services football match on Sunday.”