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The Islanders’ youth players and team officials had allegedly abused and spat on assistant referee Umesh Patel after their defeat against Karnatak SA.
Mumbai District Football Associaton’s (MDFA) disciplinary committee has suspended Indian Super League (ISL) side Mumbai City FC’s U-18 side for the entire season and slapped them with a Rs. 10 Lakh fine following an ugly episode which saw their players and officials manhandling an assistant referee after an MDFA Elite Division league match between the Mumbai City colts and Karnatak SA.
The match happened on December 11 at the Neville D’Souza ground in Bandra where Karnatak SA won the tie 1-0. After the game, the Mumbai players and their coaching staff were seen getting involved in a tussle with the match officials.
10 Mumbai City FC youth players were handed a season-long ban along with Rs. 5000 fine each. Besides the players, goalkeeper coach Abdul Kadir, physio Jay Singh, coach Mohan Dass (who incidentally has an AFC A coaching license) and assistant coach Suprith Jathana have also been suspended and fined.
Kadir and Singh were heavily punished with 5-year suspensions and Rs. 25,000 fines for each. The other two officials were handed one-year suspension each along with Rs. 25,000 fine.
The report submitted by the match officials suggested that the players and the club officials had allegedly abused and spat on 26-year-old assistant referee Umesh Patel after the game.
The video of the incident can be seen below:
An ugly scuffle between Mumbai City U-18 players, officials and referees after a MDFA Elite Division League match between MCFC youth side and Karnatak SA. Karnatak SA win the clash 1-0 pic.twitter.com/Eqz63nXah1
— Ritabrata Banerjee (@ritabrata20) December 16, 2019
The referees then went on to stage a protest in the next MDFA Elite Division league match, demanding action against the club.
This was the first time that Mumbai City’s youth team were playing in the MDFA Elite Division League after being given direct entry in order to promote Mumbai youth football. But now the actions of the grassroots development team and the staff has turned out to be a negative infuence.
Incidentally, Mumbai City will most likely not play in any of the junior AIFF leagues after not completing the accreditation process in time. Now, they will be unable to play the MDFA leagues as well.
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