Referees misfiring

Unpleasant scenes dominated the match between NorthEast United and Chennaiyin FC. Held at Guwahati, the match saw the referee Matt Cogner struggle to control the tempers flaring on the pitch and pull out his card early on. And once he did that he could not stop. He gave out a total of 9 yellow cards and 1 red card. Some of the bookings looked outlandish, like the red card which seemingly was a case of mistaken identity. The poor officiating on the field had effects everywhere; even the coaches were having verbal duels on the sidelines. Scuffles continued even after the match was over. Many players and coaches were fined and disciplined by AIFF after the match. Although the aforementioned game is a particularly bad example, it is not an isolated incident of referees messing it up. A high number of crucial decisions this season have been wrong calls. And some of them were potentially game altering decisions like penalties being denied. It happened to Mumbai City twice while facing Chennaiyin FC at home. They lost the match 0-2 in the end. Many coaches have spoken out about the poor refereeing. ATK coach Antonio Habas complained about too many cards being given to his players and AIFF fined him. FC Goa head coach Zico opened his mouth about referee's bad calls changing the nature of a game and he was warned by the governing body. Although this kind of disciplinary actions are nothing out of the ordinary, they appear especially punishing when ISL does seemingly nothing to improve on its refereeing standards.