Oscar Bruzon urges AFC to investigate Odisha FC vs Bashundhara Kings game

The tactician has pointed fingers at the quality of refereeing from the game.

Bashundhara Kings’ head coach Oscar Bruzon has made a sensational statement after his team’s elimination from the 2023-24 AFC Cup. The Spanish head coach has urged the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to investigate the match between Odisha FC and Bashundhara Kings that went 1-0 in favour of the Indian Super League outfit.

The final game of Group D in the 2023-24 AFC Cup had huge stakes on the line, for the winner was to secure a place in the inter-zonal semi-finals of the competition. The Bangladeshi outfit needed only a draw to secure their place in the next round but the Kalinga Warriors emerged victorious at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.

“AFC has to investigate”

Speaking about the 1-0 defeat, Oscar Bruzon said it would be unfair to analyse the game due to refereeing errors. He was quoted as saying, “I cannot make a technical analysis of the game for the sake of football. The AFC has to investigate what happened with Bangladesh’s teams in the AFC Cup. In the last game we played at home, we already put in a complaint that the referee tried to stop us in advance. Good that our players showed accurate resilience. They came back.”

“But today, I repeat, for the sake of football, AFC has to look at what happened with the referees. There are two possibilities, one is an economical reason and the second one is a direct instruction. So, this is my analysis of the game and I don’t want to add anything else,” Bruzon added and stormed off without taking further questions.

The disappointment is understandable among the Bashundhara Kings’ fanbase and the coaching staff, however, the allegations made by Oscar Bruzon are serious. It will be interesting to see if the AFC takes further steps and launches an investigation into the 1-0 win by Odisha FC that saw the Juggernauts advance into the next round of the 2023-24 AFC Cup.

Something similar happened during the 2021 edition where Bashundhara Kings needed a win over ATK Mohun Bagan to advance into the knockouts but failed to do so. There were questions raised at Sushanta Tripura’s sending-off in that game, which had an impact on the eventual result.

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Whatsapp & Telegram.