Referee Pranjal Banerjee wrongly awarded a penalty in favor of Chennaiyin FC against Kerala Blasters. Kochi: Angry Kerala Blasters fans took to social media to vent spleen on referee Pranjal Banerjee after their disappointing 1-1 draw with Chennaiyin FC in the Indian Super League (ISL) on Friday.
They have every reason to be furious with the official as it's not just Blasters supporters who believe that it was a blatantly bad decision by him to award a penalty to the home side in the dying minutes of the match.
The incident has once again brought into focus the declining standards of refereeing in the ISL.
The referee deemed Blasters captain Sandesh Jhingan to have handled the ball and pointed to the spot after Francisco Fernandes' shot appeared to be headed towards the target in the 87th minute. However, television replays showed that the ball hit the defender's armpit.
Is he blind, asked an incensed Blasters fan on the social media after the match.
A couple of weeks ago, Chennaiyin FC manager John Gregory had lamented about the quality of ISL referees citing two instances of poor decisions that eventually decided the outcome of the matches.
He came down heavily on the referee who officiated the match against Mumbai City FC after replays showed that the incident which prompted the official to award a penalty against Chennai was clearly out of the penalty box.
The second incident occurred during the tie between Kerala Blasters and North East United when the match official Rowan Arumughan handed a straight red card to the North East goalkeeper T P Rehenesh for a minor offense in the closing stages of the first half.
The local players agree that the ISL has helped improve the standards of Indian football, while the foreign recruits are of the opinion that the league has fueled the rise of many promising Indian footballers.
However, the standard of referring in the ISL by Indian officials has drawn a lot of flak from most of the foreign coaches. Raising concerns over the overall quality of the league, they stated that many poor decisions from match officials have seen the course of the games change altogether.
“In the previous edition, we had a mix of international and local referees in the first half of the season and local referees for the second. This season we have started with local referees and I think that is bad since it denies the local officials to interact with seasoned professionals and learn from them,” said Mumbai City manager Alexandre Guimaraes.
This year’s league has witnessed many contentious and dubious decisions from the match officials and it is the local organizers who earned the wrath of both coaches and players.
It is high time the All Indian Football Federation (AIFF), which appoints all match officials, found a permanent solution to the issue. However, the AIFF bosses have taken strong exceptions to the comments made by coaches, making it clear that they have no plans to increase the number of foreign officials in the league.
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