Guwahati Super Division tie abandoned as players manhandle referee

A disciplinary committee meeting was called on Saturday to investigate the incident.

The ongoing RG Baruah Memorial Guwahati Super Division had to witness an unfortunate event in Friday’s match between Gauhati Town Club and Rajbari AC. It was the 68th minute, when most of the Rajbari AC players as well as their officials lost their cool regarding a few of the referee’s decisions and beat up the referee.

Coming to the game, Gauhati Town Club had four points from three matches whereas Rajbari had only a point to their name and were sitting at the bottom of the points table. The game was tied at 1-1 by the half an hour mark, before the Town Club’s Imlong and Rajbari’s Rajen got into a tussle and both of them were sent off.

Rajbari were leading 1-2 at the end of the first half and in the early minutes of the second, the Rajbari players got furious with the referee for not awarding a penalty after a clear foul inside the box. Town Club equalised then equalized 65th minutes.

Three minutes later, when one of the referee’s decisions went against Rajbari again, Anang Singh of Rajbari went after referee Prabeen Kalita and landed a few punches and kicks before his teammates joined him to manhandle the official. Rather than interfering in the situation, the Rajbari officials also created havoc on the field and destroyed some property of the organizers. The referee then abandoned the match due to safety concerns and awarded all three points to Gauhati Town Club.

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Subsequently, a disciplinary committee meeting was called on Saturday to investigate the incident. After the meeting Pranab Singh, football secretary of the Guwahati Super Division who also happens to be a board member of Rajbari expressed regret the the incident and said that Anang Singh of Rajbari has been suspended from this season’s GSA Super Division matches and any further decision will be taken in Sunday’s meeting of the disciplinary committee.

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On the other hand, Ankur Dutta, Secretary, Assam Football Association has backed off from taking any steps to intervene in the situation and said, “The tournament is GSA’s private competition. We (AFA) have got no involvement in it and even the referees are their own.”

It will be interesting to see what the Sunday’s disciplinary committee verdict brings, but such violence aganist match officials in local leagues is disturbing to say the least.