Was it rivalry? Was it ‘‘his time’’? Was it just plain negligence? While the questions await answers, the All-India Football Federation, in its first act of authority after Sunday’s tragedy in Bangalore, today put Mohun Bagan ’keeper Subrata Pal — whose collision with Cristiano Junior was followed by the player’s death — under immediate suspension, pending a full investigation about his on-field conduct by its Disciplinary Committee. ‘‘All details will be sent to the committee but, till a report is tabled, Pal has been banned from all football’’, AIFF general secretary Alberto Colaco told The Indian Express today. He also said that FIFA, the game’s world governing body, and the Asian Football Confederation, have asked for a complete report ‘‘as soon as possible’’. There were no answers today, though, just high emotion as the flower-bedecked coffin carrying Cristiano’s body was wheeled into the cargo shed of Goa’s airport at Dabolim, Vasco. The Indian Airlines flight had been an arduous three-and-a-half hour journey from Bangalore, with a stopover in Pune. And, true to the mood, it was greeted by a humid, stifling afternoon. But seconds before his friend’s body was carted in on a tractor, fellow footballer and Brazillian Rogerio Ramos fumed at how it had all happened. ‘‘I’m a goalkeeper,’’ pointed out the Vasco Sports Club player, ‘‘I know the difference between blocking a ball and deliberately hitting a player.’’ In Kolkata, India captain Bhaichung Bhutia echoed Ramos’s sentiments at a rare press conference. ‘‘Junior’s death is a great loss’’, he said, ‘‘it was because of unsporting play by Paul that Junior is not with us.’’ Bhutia said this was not the first time that Paul had indulged in such onfield behaviour and referred to his physical assault on Jeremiah during a free-for-all in the Durand Cup final against East Bengal. In Bangalore, however, city police chief V Marisswamy said there was ‘‘no evidence’’ in the post mortem report to show that Paul’s action had caused Cristiano’s death. The cause of death was cardiac arrest, he said. As the body of the younger of two siblings, who lost his father at a ‘‘very young age’’ was off-loaded, and wife Juliana was hurriedly ushered into the cargo’s office—she had requested privacy—the floodgates broke. ‘‘He was such a good player,’’ India defender Mahesh Gawli (25) of Mahendra United shook his head. Pointing to Cristiano’s penchant for ‘‘reading the Bible’’ Gawli maintained that the star scorer who took the Indian football scene by storm from the moment he arrived last year was a ‘‘very disciplined man.’’ ‘‘He never drank, smoked or partied,’’ recalled former team-mate and East Bengal midfielder Alvito D’Cunha, wiping a tear. East Bengal was where Cristiano started his Indian football career. As the hearse and cavalcade of four cars wound through the 34 km to the Dempo Sports Club, housed in a massive bungalow missable in the old quarter of Panjim’s Tonca, traffic was clogged by the scores of footballers, locals and media who flooded the narrow street. Tear-drenched and exhausted, Dempo coach Armando Colaco recalled how it was Portuguese that bound the two together. ‘‘We offered him a better contract, Rs 1.5 lakh a month, but ultimately it was also the comfort he felt with a State (Goa) where he could converse in Portuguese (his native language)’’, remembered the veteran footballer as he opened the box to reveal a tightly-wrapped body—only Christiano’s face had been left uncovered. A moment later, anger had taken over. ‘‘I curse the day I got him from there (East Bengal),’’ shouted Colaco in reaction to whether the attack on the field could have been a case of rivalry. Blasting Mohun Bagan for not ‘‘correcting their goalkeeper’’ following Paul’s attack on an East Bengal player during the Durand Cup earlier this season, Colaco also hit out at the organisers for their shoddy first aid provisions. ‘‘Had there been oxygen in the can (inside the ambulance), a doctor rather than just the physiotherapists and had they taken us to the next door Mallya hospital instead to one 20 minutes away, he’d have probably survived,’’ cried the coach who’s been with the Dempo team for the last 4 years. Said Colaco: ‘‘Not only was he extremely disciplined, he was simple and completely down to earth.please bring my Cristiano back.’’ Meanwhile, recalling how Cristiano had finally been able to build a home for his mother back in Brasillia—‘‘until then they lived in rented premises’’— through his football earnings and how ‘‘Juliana and he are building a home in Minas Garais (a city of Brazil)’’ Ramos said: ‘‘It’s the saddest thing to happen to football.’’
