Calcutta: East Bengal officials on Wednesday — miffed at poor refereeing — threatened to move the AIFF after match commissioner Joginder Singh refused to take note of their protest against referee K. Sankar.

Coach Manoranjan Bhattacharjee claimed that the referee knowingly turned down the penalty against Edmilson in the 81st minute.

“It was 200 per cent a penalty… But the whole team is suffering for somebody’s vindictive attitude towards a particular player.”

He added that their recent complaint, incidentally, was their third against the same referee.

Influential East Bengal official Shanti Ranjan Dasgupta claimed: “The referee directly threatened their player saying ‘I will kill you… if I meet you outside (the state)’… Yet no action is taken against him.

“It’s very sad that when the AIFF is trying to improve the standards of the game poor referring decisions playing spoilsport.”

Bhattacharjee, however, admitted that East Bengal were still in the relegation zone and need to buck up.