On the morning of December 20, 2015, the day of the Indian Super League match between FC Goa and FC Chennaiyin, little did people know that the day
would go down in infamy. That fateful final saw FC Goa’s fortunes turned around. After the match, Chennaiyin’s Elano was arrested for allegedly manhandling the FC Goa owners, who then made comments about the
match allegedly being fixed. That night the game was brought into disrepute. It’s the consequences of those actions that have come back to haunt FC Goa.
The ISL’s regulatory commission brought a series of punishments down on FC Goa. The club has to pay a fine of Rs
10 crores to the organisers and 1 crore to FC Chennaiyin. The
co-owners, Shrinivas Dempo and Dattaraj Salgaocar have been
banned from any FC Goa activity and the stadiums for two and
three years respectively. The worst punishment of them all was
a 15 point deduction during the coming ISL season.
Fines and bans aren’t new in
the world of football or even other
sports. They depend on the kind
of ‘crime’ involved. In 1995, France
and Manchester United footballer
Eric Cantona was sent off for a serious
foul on an opponent, but then
made matters worse by launching
himself at a fan in the stands. He
was fined 30,000 pounds and given
a nine match ban. In 2014, racist
comments by Donald Sterling, owner of NBA franchise LA
Clippers, saw him getting a lifetime ban from any association
with the sport and the team. One of the worst incidents in football
was the Italian league betting scandal of 2006. AC Milan,
Juventus, Fiorentina, Lazio and Reggina were all implicated in
the scandal, which involved the rigging of matches through a
network of referees and team managers. Juventus, the champions
at the time, were fined and relegated to the lower leagues.
The Reggina club president was banned from the sport for
two and a half years. The other clubs were fined and also had
points deducted. All these actions had brought the sport and
the leagues into disrepute. The actions of the FC Goa owners,
by alleging match rigging and asking the team not to take part
of the award distribution and closing ceremony amounted to
the same. Their actions cannot be condoned.
But the club and the league will still suffer. The Rs 11 crore
fine, although very harsh, can be managed, despite the fact
that it makes up a little more than 50 percent of the club’s salary
cap of Rs 20 crore. The bans on the owners will not affect the
game. What will, is the 15 points to be deducted from the next
season. The ISL season has eight teams who play a total of 14
matches each. That amounts to 42 points to play for. Taking
away 15 points at the start of the season will destroy the club’s
chances at even making a play for the quarter finals.
FC Goa will certainly appeal these decisions; it is within their
rights to do so. There may be a deduction in points and a lowering
of the massive fine. But that doesn’t change the fact that
the ISL needs to be cautious when making decisions like this.
Goa is a powerhouse of Indian football, along with Bengal and
Kerala. Fans may not fill up the stadium in Goa if their team
starts with a deficit of 15 points. Enforce the law, but do not
alienate a stakeholder, not when the league is in its infancy.
