14-0: Mudslinging continues

“Personally,I don’t think there was any foul play. Dempo had scored most of their goals in the second half and by then they knew Salgaocar were on course to win the title. Salgaocar were leading 1-0 in the first half and needed just a draw to win the trophy. Then again,a scoreline of 14-0 is not normal in a tournament of I-League’s stature. So,the AIFF’s executive committee might seek the I-League committee’s report. We will decide once our top officials return from the FIFA elections,” AIFF vice-president Subrata Dutta told The Indian Express on Tuesday.

When Dempo went into the match against Air India,they still had an outside chance to win the title. But for that,Salgaocar had to lose their last game and Dempo had to offset Salgaocar’s 12-goal advantage,apart from winning their remaining two fixtures. The equation was unrealistic but so was Dempo’s victory margin.

Dutta,however,feels Air India threw in the towel not because the match was fixed but because they did not have any motivation left,having been resigned to being relegated. “They knew they wouldn’t be featuring in the I-League next year as they have failed to create their commercial entity. They played only for the final whistle. There was no resistance and Dempo scored freely,” Dutta added.

Dempo coach Armando Colaco,who takes charge of the Indian team next month,rubbished the allegations.

“It was a revenge match for us. We lost 4-0 in the first leg against Air India and after that match their players were laughing,dancing and saying that Dempo could be handled easily. So,before yesterday’s game I told my boys to exact revenge. I wanted six-seven goals and the players were all charged up. They played their best game in a long time. Everything we touched turned into gold; it happens in football. We lost 9-0 to Nasaf FC in the AFC Cup but nobody said that match was fixed.

“Funnily,even after losing 4-0 to Air India nobody had raised any questions. If we had to fix a match we would have done that against Pune FC. It was all over for us after we lost that game. We have been the most successful team in the Indian football for the last four-five years and as a coach I would never stoop so low to win a title,” an angry Colaco said.

Air India coach Santosh Kashyap said his team played badly but there was nothing more to it. “How can we fix it? We were ourselves fighting relegation,” he said.