#TFGtake: Fan anger brings to fore the larger problem with big clubs which IFA does not want to solve
LAST NIGHT, an already controversy-ridden season of Calcutta Football League reached a boiling point when controversial refereeing decisions led to fans disrupting the game between Mohun Bagan and Tollygunge Agragami, creating a situation where the match commissioner had to abandon the match with merely two minutes of play still remaining.
The old bad blood between club and federation came to the fore again with Mohun Bagan demanding a re-play of the whole match, threatening to pull out of the league altogether if IFA does not agree to it.
Within minutes, a perfect storm of controversies began to unfold on the internet and electronic media. Many criticized Mohun Bagan fans and officials for lacking sporting spirit. With the consensus divided on whether or not the offside calls were right, the focus once again was on how unruly the fans were, and how unbecoming it was of Bagan officials to threaten a pullout. The heat-of-the-moment reactions led to passionate stances and name-callings. East Bengal fans got involved. The whole thing became a mudfest as uncontrollable as the crowd at the Mohun Bagan Ground.
Now, some hours have passed. The dust is far from settling and the fate of this match as well as the CFL season are hanging from a balance. But the warring factions are taking a breather and it gives us time to address certain issues regarding this hullabaloo.
The context
We saw what happened on the pitch last evening. And we saw the crowd's fence-jumping, cop-defying immediate reaction to it. But looking at this incident as something limited to just last evening would be to misunderstand its implications and disregard its context.
The fact is, football fans in Kolkata are a headstrong, passionate and nearly uncontrollable bunch. But unlike the impression of unreasoned unruliness that many seem to take away from them, they are not random. The Maidan carries a baggage of behaviour patterns of a century and till date it sticks to them. A specific set of events acted as a prelude, creating a bottleneck of emotions that finally found a vent in the 92nd minute of last night's game.
First off, this edition of CFL, and the league as a whole, are seen as nothing but a headache by the two big clubs around whom it thrives. With most of the first team depleted due to ISL, they don't see it as an effective season-starter competition. But they have to take part in it, with a so-called "senior team", because IFA demands it. And the fans care about it. It's a source of early-season action and bragging rights for them. And the club officials, for all their power, are beholden to the fans, many of whom are members and vote in the club elections.
Historic milestone
This season, East Bengal could not take the CFL lightly because they are in front of a historic milestone of winning the 7th title in a row. But Mohun Bagan made it clear that they were not very keen about the local league by making a team mostly out of reserves and academy and putting Shankarlal Chakraborty, the assistant coach, in charge of the campaign.
But the clubs' attitudes changed as the league progressed. Mohun Bagan officials, pushed by the huge turnouts at their games, were forced to take it more seriously and attempt big signings to strengthen the team, with limited success. East Bengal, despite a perfect win record so far, received a setback when their head coach Trevor James Morgan decided to leave for medical reasons, promising to come back in December ahead of I-League. Suddenly, the balance ahead of the Kolkata Derby seemed to be shifting towards the Mariners. Not many could have seen this coming.
Poor organization
The IFA, meanwhile, was at loggerheads with the clubs; especially Mohun Bagan. The organization of the league was extremely poor and unprofessional and fixtures came out in small installments only days before the games. Often the teams were practicing not knowing who their next opponents were. And Bagan officials, meanwhile, were waging a war, threatening not to play the Derby games (marked 'exhibition matches' by IFA: matches between East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting) unless the IFA shared the gate revenue of the popular contests with the clubs. The association ultimately had to concede to this demand. Although the stadium crisis meant the big Derby would be played at Kalyani, a small ground, on a Wednesday afternoon. That left a lot of people sour.
High stakes
Now back to the football. Mohun Bagan had drawn their previous game against Peerless so they needed a win against Tollygunge Agragami in order to have a shot at the title. Dropping points in this game would mean falling 4 points behind East Bengal, and even a win at the Derby would not make up the deficit.
So when the linesman raised his flag to disallow Azharuddin Mallick's goal in the 92nd minute, the stakes were too high for the fans. And they acted out their frustrations. But their anger wasn't about that particular decision. It had more to do with the fact that of the three goals disallowed for offside that evening, two of them were highly debatable. Although it was touch and go and made further unclear by low-quality production and haphazard camera angles, Azharuddin and Prabir Das were slightly onside. Even former East Bengal coach Biswajit Bhattacharya said that at least Prabir's goal was totally genuine. And disallowing those goals, as it stands, may end up deciding who wins the league.
Conspiracy theory
Now, it's customary for East Bengal and Mohun Bagan fans to accuse each other of various kinds of corruption, the most prominent being collusion with IFA/AIFF/FIFA or any relevant federation and bribing the referee. This is not just trash talk between rivals but a deep-rooted belief. A sizeable chunk of the 15,000 fans at Mohun Bagan Ground truly believed, with full conviction, that East Bengal and IFA conspired with the referees to ensure that Mohun Bagan were out of the title race before the Derby, since the Red and Golds were feeling cornered.
This kind of belief is a trademark of the Maidan fueled by the instances of multiple clubs engaging in corrupt activities over the years. And the decisions -- likely honest assessments made by the linesman from his perspective -- perfectly played to that myth. The gallery was cursing at the referees throughout the second half. They didn't act earlier because for most of the game Mohun Bagan were ahead.
Smart fans
It is to be noted that Mohun Bagan did not pull out from this match. They wanted to finish it. But the fans did not let it happen. And although the police tried their best the situation wasn't in their control. With cameras everywhere and the event being televised live, they could not be as violent with the fans who invaded the pitch as they usually are.
And the fans were smarter this time too. Unlike other instances of throwing stones and direct physical confrontation with the police, they turned it into a protest, sitting down on the pitch with their hands up. They wanted to block the game and they did it. Players were not harmed and the referees remained safe behind the RAFs. For a mass pitch invasion of this scale it was surprisingly non-violent. The curses flew freely from everyone's mouths but that's a standard feature of Kolkata football.
And the Mohun Bagan officials reacted the way the fans wanted them to. The replay-or-boycott threat comes days after their previous boycott threat yielded bounty. So they see it as a go-to negotiation tactic. And the stakes were high for them too; thousands of angry fans were demanding that they take a stand. So they did. They know IFA are in a tough spot. They desperately want to hold the Derby to please the sponsors and TV partners. Any uncertainty would result in lesser sponsor interest next season and threaten the league itself. The CFL is their biggest, nay, only cash cow. And they can't make it work without Mohun Bagan.
Big club threats
So here we are in an uncomfortable situation where the fans have forced their will on a league. Was the pitch invasion justified? No. Not under any circumstance. And I say this as a Mohun Bagan fan. But excluding the context from the discussion about it would be a massive disservice to the fans' grievances. And it would be a let-off for an incompetent association whose lack of foresight and professionalism has created this situation.
Why have the IFA not taken any adequate steps to improve the quality of refereeing in CFL, something that has been a laughing stock for years? Why was the security at Mohun Bagan Ground so insufficient? Why did it take an hour and a half for horseback-mounted police to arrive at the scene? These issues need to be addressed as well.
And perhaps it's time for IFA to take a stock of their actions as well. They have clung onto CFL as their marquee competition and let IFA Shield fall into Under-19 coma to make room for ISL in the calendar. And the CFL only draws eyeballs because of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan. But why should big clubs that play in the national league take the local league equally seriously? Should the smaller league not serve as a talent-building platform instead? The big clubs would be happy to field all-Indian U-23 teams (most players in their CFL rosters are already below that age) if IFA lets them. That will give the smaller clubs a better chance and increase competition.
Instead, IFA Shield could be used as the main commercial tournament. It has history, it's shorter and can be made more attractive by inviting foreign clubs. In the past teams like Bayern Munich have sent teams here. The big clubs will gladly field full teams to fight for the Shield and it has the potential to become the most hard-fought competition in Indian football. And its success won't solely depend on East Bengal and Mohun Bagan. IFA will have better control over their tournament and clubs will think thrice before threatening to pull out.
But IFA are adamant about CFL. Which gives East Bengal and Mohun Bagan a high amount of power as the only big fishes in the pond; both clubs have used it to press advantage multiple times since independence. And one night of fan anger puts the whole league in jeopardy. This is not a healthy situation for anybody involved and unless IFA goes for pro-active, wholesale change history will repeat itself in one way or another.
