Alfred Fernandes accuses BFC of "cooking up a story" against him, claims Churchill were denied a penalty vs Minerva

THE SHOWCAUSE NOTICE served to John Johnson and Juanan comes as a welcome news to Churchill Brothers head coach Alfred Fernandes who was at the thick of it during the altercation that took place near the touchline when Bengaluru FC visited Goa.

After the match, Fernandes was criticized by BFC head coach Albert Roca who said the incident was "shameful" for Indian football. During his trip to Ludhiana to play the away game against Minerva Punjab, Fernandes had strong words of response,

"Both John Johnson and Juanan abused me. They had no business coming into my technical area and treat me like that... these foreign coaches think they know everything. When they come to India we respect them and they should do the same. He has no business speaking about me like that. He knows due to back to back losses his job will be on the chopping block as well so they are trying to cook this story against me to divert the attention."

When asked about the crowd reaction at Tilak Maidan where the fans targeted players with plastic bottles, he said the Churchill players helped calm down the situation,

"Fans are fans. But it's a good thing we controlled them... had we not done that at least one of the players would have left with a broken jaw."

Churchill Brothers played out a goalless draw against Minerva Punjab in Ludhiana, taking their unbeaten streak to 3 games. But here, too, Alfred felt he was dealt a bad hand when in the first half a penalty was denied to his team,

"When Anthony was fouled in the first half, it happened inside the box. But the referee thought it was outside and we got a penalty instead of free kick. Had we been given that penalty it could have become the turning point of the match. It feels bad when these things happen, especially away from home."

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