CHENNAI: That the ISL’s refereeing standards have not been the highest has been well-publicised. Match after match, coaches and fans go home with a complaint or two against decisions that are debatable.
Friday saw another such episode of refereeing tragicomedy that overshadowed an otherwise enjoyable 3-1 win for Chennaiyin FC over Kerala Blasters at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. The talking point of the match should have been newly-installed Chennaiyin coach Owen Coyle’s first victory or Kerala’s shocking defending. Instead, it was referee Om Prakash Thakur’s actions that came under scrutiny.
The incident happened after 25 minutes when Chennaiyin scored their second goal. An absurd refereeing decision sparked the chain of events that saw play stopped for nearly five minutes. Thakur blew for a foul when Seityasen Singh went down after being subject to pressure by Anirudh Thapa. His hands though were pointed towards the Kerala goal.
While the Kerala players moved towards the referee to find out what was going on, Chennaiyin took a quick freekick from which two of their players sneaked in behind the Kerala defence. Andre Schembri squared the ball to Nerijus Valskis, who duly slotted in. The referee signaled it was a goal.
Then came the howler that compounded the original error. As Kerala players protested and stand-in coach Ishfaq Ahmed went berserk, Thakur, after consulting with the linesman, reversed the goal and gave a freekick to Kerala from where Seityasen had gone down.
The decision was absurd, for FIFA’s laws state the referee can only ‘review’ a decision after play has restarted in case of a mistaken identity or a potential sending-off offense. Neither of those were applicable here. Play had restarted after the original foul, Chennaiyin had scored a goal and the referee had indicated that it stood. Bringing the game back five minutes made no sense.
Chennaiyin though had the ball in the net less than 30 seconds after the restart, Lallianzuala Chhangte managing to get behind the Kerala defence, who were still celebrating the earlier goal being disallowed. The score was 2-1 as it should have been. No harm had been done to the game’s outcome, though the same cannot be said about the reputation of the league.
Until all that drama, the game had been shaping up to be an exciting affair. Chennaiyin took the lead in just the fourth minute through Schembri. Kerala hit back ten minutes later through a long-ranger from Bartholomew Ogbeche.
With five minutes left in the first half, Valskis scored his fifth of the season. The second half was barren although Thakur tried his best to liven it up. Chennaiyin’s Eli Sabia got a second yellow in the final minutes for a push on Raphael Messi Bouli, that seemed worthy of a warning at best. The win enabled Chennaiyin to rise above Kerala and move into eighth.