We feel cheated by MSSA: Navy Boys

Navy Children (Colaba) cried foul after being denied an equaliser against Don Bosco (Matunga) in the final of the U-12 Mumbai School Sports Association inter-school football tournament at Azad Maidan yesterday.

We feel cheated by MSSA: Navy Boys

Navy Children (Colaba) cried foul after beingu00a0 denied an equaliser against Don Bosco (Matunga) in the final of the U-12 Mumbai School Sports Association inter-school football tournament at Azad Maidan yesterday.

Fr Jude Rodrigues

Clivert Miller scored for the Matunga side in the fifth minute after which Navy Children were awarded a penalty and scored. However, the referee asked them to re-take the penalty claiming thatu00a0 a Navy player had entered the penalty area before the spot-kick was taken.

Navy re-took the shot and this time failed to score. Angered by this, their coach Sheldo ordered the boys to leave the field with 10 minutes of play still to go and lodged a protest with the MSSA. Meanwhile, the referee awarded the match to Don Bosco.

Navy Children's chief coach Cdr S Gangopadhyay was livid. "In the name of MSSA, some people are running their own personal agenda. MSSA is not making careers but ruining them. MSSA is openly cheating by changing decisions like this. Our player scored the equaliser but it was denied.

When our coach protested, we were told that there are no senior MSSA officials available to take a decision. We have the photographic evidence that we are not wrong. MSSA is asking us to give a written apology as we walked out of the ground. They should be ashamed to ask us to do so because they are cheaters not us."

Don Bosco coach Leslie Machado also felt that "MSSA football secretary Faria, should have taken a decision." When MiD DAY contacted MSSA football secretary Xavier Faria, he refused to divulge details of the incident, while MSSA president Fr Jude Rodrigues was unavailable for comment.