Calcutta/ New Delhi: FC Pune City on Saturday violated the Indian Super League (ISL) rule governing Indian and foreign players ratio for a match, but might escape punishment because of weak tournament regulations.
In the match played at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Saturday, the Pune franchise played the last 28 minutes of the match with seven foreigners, reducing the number of Indian players on the field to four.
As per Rule 8.6 and 9.1 of the ISL, a team would have to keep minimum five Indian players on the field throughout 90 minutes.
In the 62nd minute of the match, trailing 0-3, Pune coach Franco Colomba replaced former India international Mehrajuddin Wadoo with Colombian Andres Rodrigues Martinez.
This raised the number of foreign players for Pune on the pitch to seven. The matter was reported by the match commissioner.
Interestingly, ISL regulations are strangely silent on the punishment for such violations. Rule 8.6 says: “Each club should ensure that at least five Indian players are fielded and playing on the pitch at all times throughout each match, save where any such Indian player(s) is dismissed as a result of him receiving a red card in such match.”
The ISL organisers, in a press release on Sunday, said: “The ISL Regulatory Commission is reviewing the apparent breach of league rule in this case and will make the announcement of its decision as soon as practicable.”
“It would not be easy to take any action against the Pune franchise because no punishment is listed in the regulations for the breach of rule 8.6 and 9.1,” said a source. “It is strange that such a huge loophole in the regulations has gone unnoticed.”
Moreover, the ISL organisers are yet to officially announce the composition of the regulatory commission and the names of the members. The rule 25.1 (b) of the ISL regulations only says: “The League will establish a disciplinary committee comprising such persons as it feels are appropriate in the circumstances and whether such persons are connected with the league or otherwise (the ISL regulatory commission) to hear and decide upon any complaint, alleged breach of or charges of misconduct under the regulations.”
The Fifa secretary, Jerome Valcke, during his visit to India last week, said any league in India should allow more Indian players in all teams. Without that, the Fifa boss said, development of Indian football would not be possible.
It could be noted that initially, the ISL organisers had planned to keep the foreigners-Indians ratio to seven-four but later made it 6-5.
A FC Pune City official said it was not a deliberate attempt on part of the Italian coach to increase the number of foreigners on the field. “It was just an oversight on part of the technical bench,” he said.
In the I League, more than three foreigners are not allowed to be on the field at any point in time and any breach of the rule would invite deduction of points. A couple of years ago, the then Royal Wahingdoh coach faltered in a second division match in Siliguri and was docked three points despite winning the match 4-1. In FC Pune City’s case, points cannot be deducted as they had lost the match 0-5.
