JOIN USMohun Bagan’s fight to avoid relegation in the I-League is set to get tougher after their captain Odafa Okolie was on Monday handed an additional one-match ban by the AIFF for arguing with the referee during the derby match against East Bengal last month.
Odafa, who was serving an automatic two-match ban after he was red-carded in the December 9 derby, was also imposed a fine of Rs 1,50,000 by the Disciplinary Committee of the All India Football Federation.
“The AIFF’s Disciplinary Committee comprising N A Khan (Chairman), Rakesh Bakshi, Uma Prasad Mukherjee, Premashis Chowdhury and D S Sivaswamy, met at the Football House on Monday. The Committee reviewed all the documents, the video of the I-League match between KEB and MMB (played on December 9, 2012,) and interrogated Odafa Okolie who was present in the hearing,” the AIFF said in a statement.
“After taking into consideration an unconditional apology from Okolie, the Committee imposed an additional one-match ban (in I-League 2012/13) and also imposed a fine of Rs. 1,50,000 on the Bagan player,” the statement said.
The committee also directed that Odafa will be allowed to play only after paying the fine.
Odafa was handed an automatic two-match ban after he was red carded for a prolonged argument with the referee regarding a warning against one of his team-mates.