IFA Shield final abandoned

By Our Sports Reporter

KOLKATA, OCT. 7. Violence took centre-stage leading to the abandonment of the final of the 107th IFA Shield played here at the Salt Lake Stadium on Sunday.

The two finalists - defending champion Kingfisher East Bengal and Brazil's Palmeiras-B - relinquished friendly action on field and got involved in assaulting each other in a manner befitting a street fight between rowdies.

The fate of the match remained unknown as the organiser - Indian Football Association - decided to convene a meeting of the organising committee on Monday to deliberate on the next action.

Of the 36 minutes of action, Palmeiras lead East Bengal by striker Reinaldo D'Souza goal, which came up in the 25th minute.

The local team played the match under protest as the revised fixtures had it playing the semifinal, where it beat Mohun Bagan 2-1 on Saturday, and the final consecutively without a day's break.

Apparently felt belittled by the organiser, East Bengal showed an abrasive spirit right from the start. The organiser, which was hard pressed to complete the tournament by Sunday as the visiting team was scheduled to fly back on Monday, agreed to East Bengal's initial demand of having a delayed start (the scheduled kick-off time was five in the evening and the match started an hour late) which was set as a precondition to the former's request of having the match on Sunday.

Next was the controversy with the make of the ball. East Bengal officials - present in the bench in a much higher number than what is specified by the FIFA - started rushing to the fourth official urging to change the ball as it allegedly was not of the agreed make (Cosco - Delta).

The match had already seen 15 minutes of action. This drew in the Plameiras coach, Humberto Ferreira, into the altercation. By the 20th minute Palmeiras was seen walking off the ground in protest as the officials prepared to `rectify' the error as the home team's behest by changing the ball. The local organisers tried to reason with the visitors and the match was restarted after a break of eight minutes during which the visitors were made to agree to use the `new' ball.

The spirit of the contest was already vitiated by now. As Brazil went ahead by a brilliant long-ranger by Reinaldo, East Bengal players resorted to rough tackles and off-the-ball assaults.

Their action was vociferously supported form the galleries which were well attended. The bitterness shown by the home team appeared to infect the visitors who too replied with the same vehemence.

The spark that blew into a bruising battle involving all the players and officials on the ground was ignited in the 36th minute when East Bengal's Nigerian striker Omoloja Olalekan was fouled near the Palmeiras box.

The team's Ghanaian defender Jackson Agygpong took up the cause of redeeming the injustice done to his colleague and went up and chased the opponent defenders.

While the referee, P. Bhaskar of Tamil Nadu, and his colleagues, tried to bring the situation under control, the other East Bengal forward Bijen Singh went up and hit a Palmeiras player. This brought up retaliatory action from the opponents and the whole arena was embroiled in fight.

The action, lasting several minutes, had left East Bengal striker Joe Paul Anchery, who took active part in the action, and Jackson with visible injuries.

The casualty in the Palmeiras camp was not known as the team was huddled into their dressing-room in the basement and no one was allowed to meet them.

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