I-League 2017: Arrows Coach taunts Minerva Punjab; gets hit back by MPFC owner

A DAY AFTER Indian Arrows suffered defeat at the hands of Minerva Punjab FC, the coach of the AIFF developmental side went online to express his emotions.

Luis Norton de Matos, was the coach of India’s Under 17 World Cup team and later handed over the charge for the revived Indian Arrows project. On December 4^th, Arrows played Minerva Punjab FC in the I-League. Arrows having won their first game were facing Minerva who were playing their third being unbeaten. The score ended 0-2 in Minerva’s favour.

The game was a good contest and both teams pretty much gave a good account of themselves but only one team had goals to show for. There was no bad moment in the game but the real sour moment was a day after the game.

Luis Norton decided to take to Instagram to express his emotions on the loss against Minerva Punjab. Below is the post

 

Indian Arrows -0 Minerva - 2 Which reason Minerva's club does not authorized the use of 3 U17's players- Anwar Ali, Jeackson and Nong? Fear of not being able to secure the victory? Did they really need this atitude to beat an U17 team? They have not enough confidence in their good players and coaching staff? Strange philosophy of a senior professional team that uses 5 foreigner players!!! A youth football development project in a country and the progress of its players will always have priority over the individual interests of a club desirous of winning a match at any price. #indianarrows#heroileague# indianfootball#minerva#youthfootball#u17indaingeneration#

A post shared by Luis Norton de Matos (@luisnortonmatos) on Dec 6, 2017 at 2:24am PST

His anger certainly not directed towards any on-field incident but to point out two things

-       Minerva’s right to disallow Anwar Ali, Jeackson Singh and Nong to play in the game

-       Minerva’s fielding of five foreign players against Indian Arrows

Every loaned player cannot play against the club from where he is loaned is very well known fact in football. Therefore, Norton either is not aware of this fact or there must a clause saying otherwise.

About fielding a maximum of five foreigner players in an I-League game has been brought into effect for the 2017-18 season. Hence, there is no violation of any terms.

Here is the reaction by Minerva Punjab onwer, Ranjit Bajaj.

What a loser .... what wil his players think ? He has no confidence in the bench strength? I thought he wanted to play for experience/ we play for three points @Minerva_AFC / of it was national duty they can have my whole team even it means losing three points / 🙏🏽🇮🇳

— Ranjit Bajaj (@THE_RanjitBajaj) December 7, 2017

The Arrows in the only side in the I-League no not have any foreign player in the squad. It could be a case of crying over spilled milk for Norton and finding excuses to lay blame elsewhere for the loss against Minerva Punjab FC

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