Durand Society shows Red-card to Delhi referee

Nov 06: In an unprecedented move the Durand Cup organising committee decided not to continue with Delhi’s National referee Ashok Ghosh in the ongoing 120th Osian’s Durand Cup.

The decision not to retain Ghosh aroused because of his dismal outing during the pre-quarterfinal match between Mahindra United and BSF played on November 2, which saw the Mumbai side won with a solitary goal margin after a keenly contested tussle.

According to Durand Cup General Secretary Joginder Singh, “He will not be allowed to officiate in the ongoing tournament after his gloomy performance in the match. Other teams also requested us to keep him away as it is a knock-out tournament.”

Ghosh had made three unambiguous mistakes that had cost the BSF team the match including a clear-cut handball in the dying minutes by a Mahindra defender inside the box.

Talking to NewstrackIndia correspondent, Brigadier H P S Dhillon, Vice-chairman Durand Cup organising committee confirmed, “Referees inspector G S Chauhan had questioned him on his mistakes after the match and found that he committed mistakes during the match.”

“So we decided not to continue with him any further in the Durand Cup this year,” added Dhillon.

When asked Referees Inspector G S Chauhan about this issue, “He washed his hands off by saying that I have got 42 referees for the tournament and it is not the case, looming the clouds of uncertainty over the issue, though he neither confirmed nor denied Durand’s society stand.”

REFERRE’S UNFORGIVEN MISTAKES

Referee’s role first came in the 22 nd minutes game of the second half, when the officiating referee Ashok Ghosh did not show Mahindra’s Harpreet Singh, a yellow card, after the latter deliberately handled the ball just outside the box in a goal bound movement.

In the 87th minute of the play referee deliberately awarded the penalty in Mahindra’s favour after T Bhattacherjee was found handling the ball in the box, however, it was quite evident that the ball just brushed past his T-shirt in a goal mouth melee and also it was not intentional.

Moreover the officiating referee denied BSF team a clear-cut penalty after Mahindra United Gautam Debnath’s hand openly touched the ball in the penalty area. In addition fourth referee only gave two minutes added time, however, there were five to six times stretcher was brought into the ground in the second half itself. This shows the standard of refereeing in our country.

The proverb ‘Easier said than done’ follows in this particular case as some people might come in the referee’s defence saying that anyone can commit those mistakes on any given day and after all he is a human being. But the question here arises that how come a person went on with those dreadful errors targeting only one team and why didn’t he make mistakes in the favour of BSF team during the entire match.