Hard-fought win

The Ambedkar Stadium was seized by loyal fans of Indian football on one of the finest nights that Bhaichung Bhutia’s team could have aspired for. The fans came in thousands, many with the tri-colour painted on their cheeks; girls, outnumbering boys, were among those who occupied the seats early.

Football was a rage that day in Delhi. The venue had seen such crowd way back in the 70s and 80s, but the audience then was predominantly from the old city. The character of the football audience has undergone a change. So has the image of Indian football, thanks to the victory at the 14th Nehru Cup.

The Nehru Cup was launched in 1982 and some of the stars who graced the Indian soil were Venancio Ramos (Uruguay World Cupper in 1986), Enzo Francescoli (Uruguay World Cupper in 1986 and 1990), Rinat Dasayev (erstwhile Soviet Union star and world No. 1 goalkeeper at one time), Wlodzimierz Smolarek (Polish great), Vasily Rats (Soviet Union World Cupper in 1986 and 1990), Jorge Burruchaga (Argentina, World Cupper in 1986 and 1990), Sergio Batista (Argentina, World Cupper in 1986 and 1990) and Igor Belanov (Soviet Union, 1986 European Footballer of the Year). It was an exalted event in Indian football calendar until 1997 when it was abruptly stopped.

The tournament was revived 10 years later to boost Indian football and chief coach Bob Houghton was its architect. He assumed responsibility for drawing up a plan that ensured India would not take on teams that are placed too high in the FIFA rankings. The 2007 edition saw India win in style against a tough Syria. The result was repeated this time when Syria looked the better team but India emerged the champion.

The scenes at the Ambedkar Stadium captured the mood of the fans. They had come to back Indian football and the stunning victory, thanks to an inspired Subrata Paul under the bar, was a tribute to the faith that the supporters had reposed on their heroes.

The overflowing Stadium, with a capacity of 17,000, was a wonderful sight. A riot of colours formed the background even as desperate fans, unable to gain entry to the venue, rushed to the adjacent Ferozeshah Kotla to grab every possible space. Credit to the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) authorities for allowing football fans the access to one of the stands that gave them a clear view of the football pitch.

Houghton was the driving force that propelled the players to the top. All he wanted from them was to give “100 per cent” and the Englishman was not disappointed. The team played within its limitations but some of the “boys” performed beyond themselves to carve a victory against heavy odds. Syria was the favourite even as Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka and Lebanon offered challenges at various stages.

That it was an all-Asian tournament hardly mattered to the fans. The younger generation has grown up watching some fascinating stuff at the world stage on television but are prepared to give Indian football too a place in their heart. Only, it needs to be consistent. Football, once a game of the masses, had faded in terms of support but the Nehru Cup win should go a long way in restoring its popularity.

Not many gave India a chance after it lost the opening match to Lebanon. The build-up for the tournament had been exemplary, thanks to Houghton, who took the team to Dubai and Barcelona. The pre-event hype was thus understandable. “Never had the team taken such professional measures to prepare for a tournament,” remarked Bhaichung Bhutia. His remarkable partnership with Houghton and the healthy understanding between the coach and his players meant there was reason to expect a resurgence of Indian football. It was triggered by Bhutia, who was to be adjudged the Man of the Tournament.

India played like a cohesive unit after the shocker against Lebanon. The home team was done a huge favour by Sri Lanka, which tamed Lebanon 4-3. In a memorable performance, Sri Lanka sank three goals in the span of 10 minutes to destroy Lebanon, which had come with high hopes. Mohammed Issadeen was the star of Sri Lanka’s victory with three spectacular goals.

But Sri Lanka flattered to deceive. It suffered losses against Syria (0-4), India (1-3) and Kyrgyzstan (1-4) and finished last in the standings. Lebanon ended up a rung higher while Kyrgyzstan took the third spot.

S. SUBRAMANIUM

Team India managed the unthinkable against all odds.

The clash for the title did not quite meet the technical excellence expected from the teams but it did satiate the desires of Indian supporters.

“India was lucky to win the final,” lamented the Syria coach Faser Ebrahim. He had issues with the officiating too. But then India won fair and square in a contest that went the distance. It was 0-0 at full time; 1-1 after extra time and finally 6-5 via the sudden-death and India’s hero was Paul, whose towering presence under the bar was so crucial.

India would have had a hero in Renedy Singh, who buried Syria with a goal in the 114th minute. Fate, however, played a hand. Syria snatched the equaliser with barely 20 seconds from the final whistle. It was a terrible tactical mistake by India, which lost possession near the Syrian goal and a stunning counter-attack saw Ali Dyan score with a header. Thereafter it was Paul all the way as he pulled off three penalty saves.

Thanks to the win, India moved up seven places in the FIFA rankings, from 156 to 149. Syria maintained its position at 95 but Lebanon slipped from 148 to 150. The surprise came from Kyrgyzstan. It lost two matches and yet ended up at 143, which was 17 places above its pre-tournament ranking. Sri Lanka too dropped three places to 159.

As the crowd melted, Houghton commented at the post-match Press conference. “We can match any Asian team at this venue.” He was lavish in his praise of the magnificent audience. About time the local football authorities gave a serious thought to having a stadium of their own. It can be a fitting reward for Houghton’s good work with the team.

Fans and violence

The recent, horrific scenes of violence around the West Ham United ground at Upton Park, East London, on the occasion of their League Cup match against their deadly local rivals, Millwall, raised sinister memories of the not so distant past, when hooliganism seemed to be part and parcel of English football. All too often following the England team abroad: and leading to the appalling Heysel disaster of 1985 in Brussels, when 39 Juventus fans were crushed to death after bei ng attacked by Liverpool thugs.

The violence around Upton Park surged on for the better, or worse, part of six hours. There were simply not enough police to subdue it. Inside the ground, there was constant uproar, periodic invasions of the pitch by West Ham fans, vicious racist chanting by those of Millwall.

Immediately, there was talk of sanctions on both clubs, of action by the Football Association. Police were blamed for limiting the number of Millwall fans permitted at the game to a mere 2300; as if a larger allocation would have made the slightest difference. The pitifully naive idea that the more Millwall fans allowed into Upton Park, the fewer there would have been to riot in Green Street and its environs was risible. Thousands of Millwall toughs, like their West Ham equivalents, came not to watch the match but to fight, with bricks, with bottles, with fists and feet. A hapless 44-year-old Millwall fan, there in the wrong place at the wrong time was stabbed while protecting his son. A 20-year-old West Ham thug was subsequently arrested. Yet, a mere 14 arrests were made by the police among the hundreds who ran riot. Though it was threatened or promised that further arrests would be made on the basis of video evidence. Yet, what good would that do? True, thugs can be banned from the grounds, but who is to stop them getting into matches when they want to? Unless they have to report to police stations each Saturday.

The fact that much of the violence was pre-planned seems beyond doubt. But then again anyone who knows the hooligan scene and its brutal history could have told you that must happen. Such confrontations between hooligan supporters are all too frequently pre-planned, though usually in places carefully selected away from the grounds and therefore ideally away from the police who, it is hoped, would thus not be able to interfere. Yet, knowing all this, what possessed the Metropolitan Police to allow this powder keg of a game to go ahead in the first place? And having so foolishly allowed it, why were there so relatively few police to deal with it?

On some occasions, the police and the authorities can hardly predict violence. There was such a case a couple of years ago when Millwall, at home in their relatively new Bermondsey stadium, played hosts to Birmingham City in a game which would decide which team would be promoted to the top division. As it transpired, Birmingham, the visitors, unexpectedly won it and the riot which ensued was vicious in the extreme. I knew all about it because my son Mark, an expert in football hooliganism who has written a book largely about it, though he also has an Oxford classics degree and was for years an opera singer, was in the middle of the chaos, telling me over his cell phone what was happening. The outnumbered police, he said, behaved with astonishing bravery.

But then Millwall fans, in the vernacular, have a record as long as your arm. West Ham’s fans goodness knows are no angels. Their hooligan element, self-styled ‘The Inter City Firm’, have been notorious for their violence. They even had visiting cards made to be left on their victims. And some of them were certainly involved in the battles of Upton Park.

Millwall, however, hard though, over the years, their club authorities have tried to stop it, have a record of fan violence which goes right back to the 1920s, when their ground was periodically closed after riots. They began as a club close to West Ham in East London, but, in 1910, they moved to south east London in a ground somewhat appropriately located in Cold Blow Lane and known, since Millwall were nicknamed The Lions, as The Den. It was a rough, tough Docklands area, and ‘The Den’ became notorious over the years for pitch invasions during games. Curiously, Millwall were the last of the 11 London League clubs to get into the top division, but when they did, belatedly, do so, it was with some style and success, notably with the productive goal getting partnership up front of the England International to be, Teddy Sheringham and the Ireland international, Tony Cascarino. Since then, alas, they have sunk into the lower reaches of the League. The docks no longer exist, the tradition of violence does.

Perhaps one of the worst, quite recent, examples of Millwall fan violence took place outside London when Millwall were up against the Bedfordshire club, Luton Town. Not only the Millwall hard cases but ruffians from all over London converged on the Kenilworth Road ground, and the subsequent violence was appalling.

A supporter waves his shirt after the match was interrupted by a pitch invasion.Several hundred fans confronted each other in streets close to the stadium, and police revealed CCTV footage of supporters hurling bottles and bricks at officers outside Upton Park.

What should be grasped about the recent abominations at Upon Park is that they were not, in any sense, a “one off.” Football violence has not been eliminated from English football. It has simply, so to speak, gone elsewhere. Away from the stadiums, where it was so horribly evident in the 1970s and after, simply because the police, with their CCTV cameras, could keep such tight crowd control inside the grounds. So fans who wanted to fight, as, alas, so many of them did, were largely obliged to do it elsewhere. Millwall’s, whatever the club tried so admirably to do about it, and despite the disappearance of the docks themselves, continued to be ferocious and formidable. As indeed, did those of Liverpool who, when Manchester United and their fans visited Anfield would turn their city into a cauldron of hatred.

Though to be fair, Italy has been as bad and worse: as English fans have all too painfully experienced, when their clubs visit Rome and are all too frequently stabbed in the buttocks.

Indeed going back to 1985, you might say that at the bottom of the appalling Heysel disaster was the brutal attacks with chains and knives of young Roma fans on Liverpool’s after Liverpool, on penalties, had beaten their team in the European Cup Final of May 1984.

West Ham, meanwhile, though they can hardly be held responsible for what happened so appallingly outside their stadium, laid themselves open to disciplinary action by the authorities for what happened inside Upton Park: the pitch invasions in particular.

My feeling remains that any punishment would be hard on the Hammers, that the true culprits, be they the flaccid football authorities or the complaisant police, are the obvious ones, for letting such a game go ahead at all. Useless even to have played it behind closed doors, the thugs, in all probability would still have come. How about using a distant neutral ground? Newcastle, perhaps, in future?

Issadeen inspires Lanka to victory

NEW DELHI: An inspired Sri Lanka, spurred by three goals from M.N.M. Issadeen, rocked the tournament with a sensational 4-3 win against Lebanon in the Nehru Cup at the Ambedkar Stadium here on Saturday. It was Lebanon’s first defeat in two matches after the 1-0 verdict against India.

The weather was just ideal and the teams came up with some intense stuff. The tempo was set with some early aggression and credit to Sri Lanka for remaining positive right through. The result was an ideal reflection of Sri Lanka’s excellent performance.

The pick of the Sri Lankan lot was E.B. Chenna, the roving playmaker with a flowing mane. He was a relentless threat to the Lebanese defence. His presence created confusion in the opposition ranks and Issadeen, who scored the first, second and fourth goals, capitalised on his good work.

Racy encounter

Early indications of a racy encounter came when Chenna created the move for the first goal in the seventh minute. The ball was set rolling by Chathura Maduranga with a square pass and Chenna carried the move forward with an impeccable through pass for Issadeen to place it in style.

Sri Lanka enjoyed the lead for a mere two minutes as Mohmoud El Ali floated the ball precisely to Akram Moghrabi, who headed in comfortably. Lebanon scored again during injury time of the first half when Al Saad Ali strongly headed in a cross from Mohammad Korhani.

The red card to Moghrabi left Lebanon with ten men from the 41st minute and Sri Lanka exploited the situation. It pounded the Lebanon goal with a few well-constructed moves and came to scoring twice but goalkeeper Lary Mehanna thwarted the moves with his anticipation. However, a concerted effort by Sri Lanka left Lebanon gasping. Three goals in nine minutes brought the house down.

The equaliser for Sri Lanka came from Isadeen after Madurang’s shot was blocked by the Lebanese goalkeeper. Soon came another goal when Raumy Mohideen made no mistake off a crafty ball on the top of the box from Maduranga. Sri Lanka slammed one more when Issadeen beat the goalkeeper with a deft placement on the turn. Sri Lanka closed the contest on a sad note when D. W. Hettiarachchi was sent off for an infringement on Korhani.

The resultant penalty was converted by Korhani but Lebanon had run out of time.

Baichung Bhutia is the face of Indian football. He now confronts a grave situation where the team looks up to him for deliverance. He is familiar with such challenges. It is just that this one comes with India’s appearance in the tournament just a match old.

Having lost 0-1 to Lebanon, India must win against Krygystan on Sunday. A defeat could well mean end of the road unless providence shows the way.

Milestone beckons

Bhutia, who will be playing his 100th match (including friendlies), understands the gravity of the situation. “A lot depends on Sunday’s match. We have to win. I hope the ground condition would be better than the first match,” said the star player.

The Indian camp was unhappy with the tall grass in its match against Lebanon and chief coach Bob Houghton has been highly critical of the playing conditions.

India has a couple of worries ahead of the match.

Defender N.S. Manju, down with an ankle injury, paves the way for seasoned campaigner Mahesh Gawli while Deepak Mondal will replace Surkumar Singh, who is nursing a strained thigh.

A comforting thought for Bhutia is that Sunil Chetri will be assisting him from the word go.

“I am happy Sunil is in the starting line up,” said Bhutia. Chetri, who had played as a substitute in the last match, is expected to add teeth to the attack which will miss Sushil Singh, who twisted his ankle during practice on Friday.

LNCPE beats Salim Brothers

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: LNCPE overcame Salim Brothers 2-1 to record its second consecutive win in the Thiruvananthapuram district ‘B’ division football league at the Medical College ground on Monday.

Alex and Sojan scored the goals for LNCPE while Arun reduced the margin for Salim Brothers.

The other ‘B’ division match between BPBPM and St. Thomas FC was called off when 10 minutes remained for the match to end.

The teams were level at 1-1 when St. Thomas players staged a walkout protesting a referee’s decision.

The fate of the match will be decided by the executive committee of the Thiruvananthapuram district football association.

Model contract for players

KOLKATA: The Indian Football Association has decided to formulate a uniform model contract for all the players getting into an agreement with various clubs affiliated to it.

On Monday, the governing body of the IFA formed a committee headed by one of its vice-presidents, Debashish Sarkar, who will work out the details of the model contract based on the guidelines suggested by the international and national governing bodies of the sport — FIFA and AIFF.

The committee will also include former players and representatives from different clubs. The IFA move is aimed at eliminating controversies between clubs and players which has been happening in the absence of a standardised format.

The IFA has also decided to issue a letter to Mohun Bagan to prove the allegations of bias its officials have levelled at the state body after it decided to penalise player Snehasish Chakraborty. Taking serious note of the allegations, IFA said it might initiate action if Bagan’s reply is found unsatisfactory. — Principal Correspondent