Calcutta: Whoever thought that the Indian Super League (ISL) was just a glamorous tournament sans the competitive edge, would surely change opinions after Thursday’s Atletico de Kolkata versus FC Goa match, in Margao.
With both teams refusing to yield even an inch without a fight, the fight, it seems, went beyond the permitted levels, way beyond the on-field tussle for the ball.
The ill-tempered match was peppered with three beautiful goals and as many as seven yellow cards. But things didn’t end on the field.
The FC Goa camp accused Atletico coach Antonio Lopez Habas of punching French star and marquee player Robert Pires on the face during a half-time altercation. The allegation was denied outright by the Atletico camp, who went on to write a letter to the ISL to investigate the matter. Interestingly, FC Goa, too, said that they would be lodging a written complaint.
Atletico were trailing 0-1 in the first-half following Andre Santos’s 21st minute strike. Both teams were engaged in a physically aggressive game as the referee blew the whistle for the end of the first half. It was then that Goa’s Gregory Arnolin and Atletico’s Fikru Teferra got involved in an act of head-butting. It wasn’t very clear who headbutted whom, but Fikru’s actions said that he was claiming of being headbutted by Gregory. One wonders if the Habas-Pires altercation, if any, was resultant of the earlier incident.
FC Goa manager, the legendary Zico, raised the topic at the post-match media conference. The Brazilian said: “…The other thing that happened, which is more serious, is that one of our players said that he was beaten by the coach of the other team. Pires said he was punched on the face by the Atletico coach and it is very shameful.
“I am telling you what my players told me and I didn’t see that myself, but I don’t think that Pires will lie and say something that didn’t happen… And when the team entered the field in the second half, they were very nervous… During the half-time, we were only trying to control their nerves and calm them down,” Zico added.
Zico went on to say that what happened was very regretful. “FC Goa came to play football… In the last three games, no players got expelled… We had got only two yellow cards. So my team goes to play football on the field. Maybe the other teams come on the field to play American football. But what happened today was very regretful.”
When asked if Habas deserved marching orders, Zico said: “I don’t know if the referee saw it, but it will be reported. We will be submitting a written complaint.”
When Atletico co-owner and spokesman Utsav Parekh was contacted by The Telegraph, he confirmed that the franchise was writing a letter to the ISL regarding the matter. According to Parekh, the franchise will leave it to the ISL authorities to “investigate the matter and come out with the truth”.
“Look, none of us were present on the spot when the alleged incident took place. So it wouldn’t be proper for us to comment on who’s right and who’s wrong. We are writing to the ISL about it and we expect them to investigate the matter and come out with the truth.
“CCTV footage is available and so it will not be very difficult to establish the truth. Whatever the incident, one can find that out from the CCTV footage. So we will not be commenting on what Zico has said, we will wait for the ISL to investigate the matter first,” Parekh said.
Asked about Habas’s reaction to the accusation, Parekh said: “The coach is too worked up with the events, so there’s no point talking to him at the moment. We will speak about it when the right time comes.”
However, according to another source, the team believes that Habas is not to be blamed for the incident. “Habas is not at all guilty… He didn’t attack anyone, on the contrary he was attacked. The ISL must see CCTV footage and decide. Not only that, the FC Goa security personnel were also present during the incident.”
The source further said that the franchise is worried about the security of the coach and the players.
