The “ SLAP “ which completely damaged & destructed the Indian football

This is the third story on the “ SLAP “ that relates to Indian football and this is again a truth that completely finished Indian football immediately after the 1984 Jawaharlal Nehru Cup which was held at Kolkatta in the fag end of the month of December 1983 and got over by the mid of January 1984

This “ SLAP “ took place in the Rovers Cup which was held at Mumbai just after the Jawarharlal Nehru Cup was played and the repercussion was such and so TREMENDOUS that FOUR “ JEWELS “ of Indian football were completely FINISHED and their career which could have been still til   1987 or till 1988 to play for India came to a grinding halt in 1984 immediately after the Rovers Cup which got over between January 1984 to February 1984

Never had the Indian football witnessed such a gory scene where in one shot FOUR of their TOPMOST players were done to DEATH for NO fault of them It was in a moment of heat that this incident took place and it completely killed the Indian football thereafter

Incident: Rovers Cup 1983-1984 , Organisers wanted Mohammedan Sporting in Finals

The 1983-83 basically the 1983 Rovers Cup was played in a manner that there were two phase of the tourney held The Jawaharlal Nehru Cup was to be played at the fag end of December 1983 to the mid of January 1984. Hence the Rovers Cup authority forwarded the plea to the AIFF to hold this tourney in a manner that it would be played in two phase The first phase would involve two teams to qualify for the tournament proper and the next phase would be between the six teams directly given to play the matches along with the two qualifier

This plan also was mooted to collect as much as gate money that could be possible for filling in the coffer of the WIFA which was headed by Mr Khalifa Ziauddin who was the CEO of WIFA ( Western India Football Association )

Khalifa Ziauddin came into the prominence of WIFA way back in the start of the era of 60’s and by this time he was a TOP-HONCO in the management of the Indian Football. Hence he carried the weight Another significant fact of the 1983-84 Rovers Cup was that the Matinee Idol and the MAHARAJA of Indian silver screen Mr Dilip Kumar arranged a lot of donation to the WIFA through the fraternity of film and it’s industry to put it into the coffer of the WIFA to conduct this tournament To make this tournament more GLAMOROUS that year was the invitation that was accorded to a Iraqi team which had as many as seven players assisting their side That added to the CREAM of the tournament then

East Bengal and Mohun Bagan faced trouble as the tournament progressed : WIFA was the tormentor

The Iraqi team which came here was managed by Mr Udai Hussian who was the son of the erstwhile ruler then Mr Saddam Hussain. They played in this tournament  but not before forcing the organizer to accept EITHER one of the two terms that they had put Firrst was that their team ought to be paid exactly Rs 1,00,000,00=00 ie Rs one crore to participate in this tourney If not they wanted an access to play in the finals They made an term to make the grouping as such that by any mean their team ought to play in the finals This was because Mr Saddam Hussain had just taken over the rein of the country and his coffer ie the Government coffer that he was handling was blank in a way for him to manage and run Iraq He wanted money through football

It was NOT that easy for anybody here to hand over that kind of money to the foreigners participating Hence the organisers courtesy Mr Khalifa Ziauddin agreed to see that the Iraqui team would play the finals It was also decided that if the Iraqi team makes it to the finals then on that day whatever the gate money would be accrued, 60% of that plus the participating fee would be handed over to the Iraqui team That was agreed and it was decided before the tourney that Iraqui team would be the one who would be the ONE team for the finals

Money not that easy to come by Mohammedan Sporting Club donated a LOT to WIFA for Rovers 83-84

Inspite of the fact that Mr Dilip Kumar arranged a lot of money as a donation through the film industry and handed it to Mr Khalfa Ziauddin to conduct the Rovers 1983-84 the entire budget was facing a deficit to the tune of about 10 lakhs during those dats It was because the Iraqi team had to be offered the five star hospitality That was hitting the nail to the COFFIN of the WIFA

To make the matter simple Me Ziauddin went to the houses of Mafatlal who parted away with some donation but that was like the peanut in the mouth of the camel or maybe the elephant The houses of Nirlons and Tatas firmly refused to part away any money Nirlons gave the explanation that they did not have any football infrastructure and they were NEVER for football The Tatas refused saying that they had put in a lot of money to make the game better and the FOOTBALL EXCHANGE PROGRAMMES where during those days a team from abroad would come here and play the matches so that our players are exposed the top notch vagaries of football was cutting their overall budget so they refused

IF ONE REMEBERS THE TEAM  “ BOCHUM “ FROM GERMANY NAILED THE IFA XI BY 6-0 IN A GAME IN 1986 THAT WAS A PART OF THE PROGRAMME THAT THE TATAS RAN TO INVITE THE FOREIGN TEAMS HERE TO PLAY FOOTBALL

In this context Khalifa Ziauddin approached the GULABI TEA CORPORATION run by  Erfan Taher Randrian who was a TOP-HONCHO of the Mohammedan Sporting club They decided to part away with Rs 10 lakhs but with an assurance that this money ought to be returned along with a simple interest and that Mohammedan Sporting has to play the finals in any case That is where all the problems surfaced and it was that point from where the INDIAN FOOTBALL was crucified How that is what I’m going to explain now

Mohun Bagan nailed, East Bengal crucified: Rovers Cup at it’s worst

Well the tournament started It was such that the two teams from Kolkatta ought to play in one of the semis and of the three one team from Kolkatta would have to sit back to the journey of Kolkatta in any case That is what the playing chart was prepared It was prepared in a manner that Iraqui team that ws participating would make it to the finals From the other end Mohammedan Sporting was helped to inch slowly but surely to make it to the finals

In the two group Mohammedan Sporting was placed with the Iraqui team and East Bengal and Mohun Bagan were placed in the same group East Bengal qualified for the semis by topping their group. East Bengal could finish at the top because of a highly displaying performance where they pumped the air in and fizzled it out by trouncing Dempo by 3-0 with Krishna Goapl Choudhury netting a hattrick Unfortunately Mohun Bagan fizzled out as they finished third in the group

From the other end in the group tie somehow a managed game between the Iraqi tea and Mohammedan Sporting saw the game ended in a tie and both Mohammedan Sporting who finished second in their group and the Iraqi team as a winner of the group qualified It was East Bengal which was to play the other Kolkattan side in the semis and form here a BLACK CHAPTER and the CRUCIFICATION of the INDIAN FOOTBALL was to take it’s birth  Mr P K Banerjee was the coach of the East Bengal team with Mihir Bose as the Captain

Record : Mohammedan Sporting : Nothing much to show

Mohammedan Sporting after that 3-1 win against east Bengal in the Ananda Bazar Patrika Golden Jubilee match where they beat East Bengal by 3-1 just did not do and achieve anything in Indian football That was in 1968

From 1968 to 1983 they had won the Kokatta League once in 1981, they won the fed Cup coutesy a goal each by Majid Bhiskar and Jamshid Nassiri to beat Mohun Bagan in 1983 by 2-0 to win the Fed Cup, and the DCM trophy which they won in 1980 beating the South Korean bank team team from Seoul by 1-0 where Debashish Roy was awarded a wrist watch woth Rs 14,000=00 by Mr Thaer Erfan Randerian who ran the Mohammedan Sporting team then In 1968 when BNR won the Kolkatta League under the stewardship of Mr Arun Ghosh who was the captain of the BNR team then, it was Mohammedan Sporting which drew East Bengal through a goal by Pappenna to see that BNR finished a point ahead of East Bengal to win the Kolkatta League in 1968 Those were the only success of Mohammedan Sporting in the annals of indian football then Yes in 1971 courtesy two goals by Mohammed Akbar helped them to beat Tollygounge Aggragami to win the IFA Shield then.  Surprisingly in the 1971 IFA Shield semis, East Bengal had lost to tollygounge Aggragami by 0-1 Thereafter and beside this Mohammedan Sporting have nothing to show for them in football

The match: East Bengal versus Mohammedan Sporting Nothing was FAIR & SQUARE

Well in that match against Mohammedan Sporting in the semis of the Rovers Cup nothing was FAIR & SQUARE that went right and correct for East Bengal It was East Bengal who were on the up for most of the time they were over the Mohammadans and their territory with Kartik Sett  B S Thapa and Mihir Bose causing many a threat to the Sporting defense There was a perfect understanding between Prasanto Banerjee and Mihir Bose who was playing as a withdrawn forward more to assume as a role of a midfleilder an they continuously harassed the Sporting defence so much so that a legitimate goal by Debashish Roy was declared an offiside b the referee This infuriated many of the East Bengali but a pacified Mr P K Banerjee asked the East Bengali’s to continue

Mohammedan Sporting too got two clear chance to nail East Bengal but somehow in the first attempt a flying Manoranjan saved a goalline shot from Shabbir Ali and in the second it was a Bhaskar acrobatic which parried the ball just on the goal line to somehow manage to be away from the goal and then it was Tarun Dey who cleared the danger at the expense of a sideline throw which was awarded as a corner for the Mohammedan and the problem started from there Some how the first half saw the score sheet blank

No sooner the second half started the match totally saw the farce of the FARCEST supervising and it was East Bengal which had to take the beating As the match progressed the number of whistle against the East Bengali’s also started multiplying. The worst came when Manoranjan went ahead to tackle Shabbir It was a HARD but a clean tackle and it was nothing that Manoranjan had fouled Shabbir. Shabbir fell onto the ground to roll himself in anguish but NEVER in pain. That was enough for the referee to award a penalty to Sporting which they converted

An infuriated Manoranjan just screamed at the referee that I HAVE PLAYED RECENTLY A GAME AGAINST ARGENTINA AND HAD EFFECTED THIS KIND OF A TACKLE AS MANY AS 50 TIMES IN THE GAME AGAINST THE ARGENTINES BUT THAT INTERNATIONAL REFEREE DID NOT PENALISE ME HOW COULD YOU DO THAT This screaming was just enough for the referee to flash a yellow card to Manoranjan and the entire East Bengal players lost their cool Even a so COOL HEADED player like Kartik Sett took out his shoe and he hurled at the open sky in protest He was shown a YELLOW CARD for that The acts of the referee was such that the entire east Bengal team lost their focus from there itself

As the game progressed the reverse charging by the referee in terms of penalizing the East Bengali started and it became more and more as the game progressed The worst came when a loose ball was directed to Shabbir by Anudev Das and in a one-to-one position Bhaskar Ganguly beat Shabbir for the ball to grip it He kept the ball under under his control for more because Shabbir was lurking and latching him more after he had caught that loose ball The referee whistled at Bhaskar to continue the play and put it in progress but flashed a yellow to Bhaskar as a penalty to hold on the game This completely made the East Bengali to loose their tempo, cool, composuer and the balance that they had with them

FRACUS: Bhaskar started, Mona joined and Debashish , Mihir followed Referee slapped

An infuriated Bhaskar in a moment of heat completely lost his balance He rushed toward the referee and SCREAMED- TORA KI FOOTBALL ER OA, AA , KO, KHOH JAANIS Aeikhanay Ki Chaablaamee Aar Makodbaaji Kortay aaechheychees which means  DO  YOU REFEREE KNOW THE ABCD OF FOOTBALL HAVE YOU COME HERE TO ENACT IN ROWDISM AND FANATISM  No sooner that he screamed he flashed another YELLOW to Bhaskar That was the NAIL in the coffin of East Bengal Seeing Bhaskar suffering that agony Monoranjan came charging at REFEREE saying that AAMRAA ONEK FOOTBALL KHELENIYECHEE AAMI ARR O JJAKEY TUI HOLUD DEKHALEE AAMRAA DU JON EE ASIAER SERA TOR KOTO TAA ACCHEY BOL which means  WE HAVE PLAYED A LOT OF FOOTBALL THE ONE ON WHOM YOU FLAHED A YELLOW CARD AND ME ARE THE NEST OF  ASIA WHAT IS YOUR CALIBRE TELL ME

Seeing these two getting into the brawl the Captain Mihir Bose came running to take away the two from the scene but when he was trying to take them away the referee flashed a GREEN to MIHIR on the context of warning the referee Actually Mihir was saying to the refereer that DO NOT WORRY I WILL SETTLE THE MATTER AND GET THE THINGS BACK INTO THE GAME PLEASE HOLD ON This is what he said in Bengali which I have narrated in English The refreree took it otherwise and flashed a GREEN to Mihir which made him to lose his balance He then yelled at referee in Bengali saying that TODER KAY KAY NEE AACHHEY JAANISH NAA AAR PORICHOLONA KORISH which means that  WHO THE HELL BRINGS YOU ALL HERE KNOWING NOTHING AND SUPERVISING THE GAME  The FOURTH one Debashish Roy then joined the fray His goal which wa disallowed by the referee was itching him He too joined the fray in a loud voice

The two other sideline referee’s joined the main one and there started a argument which saw the nadir of it The Bengali’s now were at the PEAK of their TEMPER The referee’s too were not budging In this moment of heat one of the sideline referee used an unparliamentary  word against the East Bengali team and that was the END of everything The main referee was encircled by these QUATRET and they asked him to either take back the yellow card flashed or to say SORRY to them and to East Bengal for the UNPARLIAMENTARY word used by his colleague The referee would not budge and the main/Chided Chief  Referee used the WORD SHUT UP YOU ROTTEN BENGALI’S This was ENOUGH It was like a FRESH CUT BRINJAL PUT INTO THE FRYING PAN FOR PREPARING THE “ BEGUN-BHAAJA “That was the kind of a BURN that had caused the Manoranjan Bhaskar and the other two They lost their COOL and that encircled referee was pushed by one of them again asking HIM to say SORRY for the SLANGS that were used against the community and the FRATENITY of BENGAL as well as the club When the referee was adamant about saying that HE DAMN CARES ABOUT ALL THESE AND EAST BENGAL, a very ROCK HARD SLAP was the PRESENTATION that he got from one of them and by the time that FIRST slap could break the contact of the HAND with the CHEEK where that SLAP was IMPOSED to that main referee like a FLASH another one was SPECT at the other side of the CHEEK by another Who hit the FIRST one and WHO hit the SECOND one was something not that matter What mattered was one of them saying to the REFEREE- AEITAA HOLO PAANTAA BHAAR AAR MACHER SWAAD, BUJHLEE which means this is the TASTE OF OVERNIGHT WATER SOAKED ROTTEN RICE AND THE ILLISH FISH , DO YOU GET THAT It was such that the entire East Bengal team  wanted to come out of the game However a WILY P K Banerjee intervened and got all the yellow card dismissed The East Bengalis were in no mood to continue but they had to at the insistence of Mr P K Banerjee The LOST minded East Bengalis somehow played lackluster football to come out a 0-1 loser The finals was own by the Iraqui team defeating Mohammedan sporting by 2-1 Mohammedan Sporting was NOT that a team to score that goal against that kind of an Iraqui side which had won the Asian Games Gold medal in 1982 at New Delhi beating Kuwait then by 1-0 in the finals Jamshid Nassiri scored that important one for Mohammedan Sporting then

Why That Firing Attitude By The East Bengali Players

East Bengal were in dire strait as afar as the kitty and the coffers were concerned in 1983 From 1981 to the end of 1983 East Bengal were a TORN house Most of the players had deserted the club in 1980 They came back in 1982 The club had to pay them a lot There were overdrafts that was pending to be cleared . The club had won the IFA Shield in 1981 sharing it with Bagan, the Darjeeling Gold Cup beating Bagan, the 1982 season saw them winning the IFA League, and they shared the Durand Cup with Mohun Bagan The season 1983 saw East Bengal sharing the IFA Shield with Aryans They had lost the League title to Mohun Bagan. They again lost in the other tournament in the Fed Cup to Mohammadan Sporting courtesy a goal by Jamshid Nassiri Theyt again lost to Mohammaden Sporting in the DCM in 1983 in the semis of the tie-breaker Majid Bhiskar would take on the field against East Bengal for only say 40 minutes but the kind of misery that he would pile up for East Bengal was something very hard to describe All the goals that East Bengal were swallowing from Jamshid would be the ART of Majid That was also ITCHIND the East Bengalis

It was decided that for the 1984 season the players would be paid on the basis of the trophy that they would bring home It was also decided that except Bhaskar Ganguly and Manoranjan every players would be spoken about the payment and if they agreed to play they would continue or else………

This was the REASON that in 1983 after losing the IFA League to Mohun Bagan all the East Bengali’s were playing very HARD to atleast see to it that their salary was not reduced So far so in 1984 when the new season started the FIRST to leave the club was Mr P K Banerjee He had failed miserably as the Coach of the club in 1983 The only success for the club was a SHARED IFA Shield with Aryans and the SHARED DURAND CUP with Mohun Bagan Some of the players like Debashish Roy, Mihir Bose, Kartik Sett, Arup Das, to be frank they were as if they had all their HAIR lost when they would start thinking about their future in football They had come to make money through football but had hardly earned anything Over it East Bengal from 1980 to 1984 was continuously in the FIRING line of very BIASED and WORST kind of supervision that one could see

Committee Formed: Decision to be adjudicated on these four footballers

Initially it ws decided that all these FOUR footballers would be suspended for LIFE for what they had done in the game that day But it was East Bengal who took up the matter Mr Nishith Ghosh ran from pillar to post and through the help of some well known advocates of Kolkatta he could turn the matter to form a committee for the AIFF to grind the case A chance was given to the footballers to explain their stand

The four footballers Bhaskar Ganguly, Manoranjan Bhattacharjee,the Captain, Mihir Bose and Debashish Roy were summoned at the IFA Office to put forth their views to the AIFF They were escorted by a advocate which EAST Bengal had supplied to these quartet Mr Dutta was the one who was there for the AIFF When Mr Dutta asked the four players what they would like to do if incase they were given two option the players asked for option The FIRST was that an WRITTEN apology ought to be given to the AIFF to the REFEREE that they assaulted and would have to PROMISE that they would NOT do this in FUTURE That would give them a chance to play for India till they retire from the game and the OTHER was to be penalized for a term of five years

Mr Dutta PROMISED Bhaskar and Manoranjan that if they give it in writing about the APOLOGY then they both would be BENIFITTED by the ARJUNA AWARD Listening it Bhaskar got BOILED like an EGG gets BOILED in the HOT WATER His reply was- JAARA MOOKH E BAASHEE NIYE THEEKH KORAR BASSHEE BAJATAY SHEEKHEY NEI ODER KACHHEY AAMRA KHOMA CHAIBO which means  THOSE WHO HAVE EVEN NOW NEVER HAVE LEARNED ABOUT HOW TO WHISTLE AFTER PUTTING THE WHISTLE IN THE MOUTH DO YOU WANT US TO APOLOGISE TO THEM Manoranjan was even HARD He said- AAMDER STREE AAR MEY DER SHAONKO EDER THIKE BHALO BAAJE AIETA AAMRAA JAANI KHOMA CHABAAR TPH PROSHNO EE UTHHEY NAA WHICH MEANS THE LADIES AND THE GIRL OF THIS PART OF THE COUNTRY BLOW THE CONCH MUCH BETTER THAN THESE WHISTLERS NO QUESTION OF ANY WRITTEN APOLOGIES

Seeing these TWO replying that way Debashish Roy who was very very close to making the Indian team by then said MORAY GHELEO AAR FOOTBALL CHHEREY DILEO AAMRA KONO DIN KHOMA CHAIBO NAA which means that even IF WE HAVE TO DIE AND LEAVE FOOTBALL FOR EVER WE WILL NOT APOLOGISE BY ANY MEAN

That was the END of THESE quartet Bhaskar and Manoranjan were put off by the AIFF for anything in football. The only that remained with them was the East Bengal and it’s football Debashsih Roy was just to make it to the Indian team He was a very good scorer but his career with this had come to an end He retired playing football in the season 1989 where from Mohun Bagan he announced his retirement from the game Mihir Bose was also out fo many a things from Indian football Manoramjan and Bhaskar were to be awarded the Arjuna award for football That went away from them

THESE FOUR BENGALIS EVEN DID NOT BOTHER TO THINK OF ARJUNA WHERE IN ANY CASE ANY OTHER WOULD HAVE COMPROMISED FOR THAT AND WITH THEIR HONOUR

Players like Brahmanand Shankwalkar in the goal, Francis Benny and Anudev das as well as Tarun Dey came in for the defense line to play for India, we had Biswajeet Bhattacharjee Narinder Thapa who came in the forward line to assist India thereafter The result was a 6-0 loss to East Germany 7-1 loss to South Korea 4-0 and 7-0 loss to China and japan 6-0 loss to Kuwait and so on and so forth It was 2-2 and 2-2 against China on two occasion when these played it was 1-1 against Chine in the Jawaharlal Gold Cup in the inaugural match of it’s tourney, it was 2-2 on two occasion against South Korea in the Jawaharlal Nehru Trophy it was 0-1 against Argentina in 1984 when they were playing for India, it was 2-1 defeat for Yugoslavia in the inaugural Jawaharlal Nehru tourney when they were playing, it was a 2-1 loss to Hungary when they last played for India in the Jawaharlal Tourney in 1983 at Kerala

It became a 0-6, 1-7, and those kind of a loss for India It was from there the INDIAN FOOTBALL was crucified and it TILL NOW had and has NOT recovered in any way to make us feel that we know to plat football

Last it was a QUARTER-FINALS in the Asian games football in 1982 with Bhaskar Ganguly leading the side Now we do not even qualify for any kind of any football tourney when we play or participate We qualify once in 35 years only to fizzle out easily

 THE LAST VICTORY THAT WE EAR MARKED AGAINST THE SOUTH KOREAN WAS IN 1985 WHEN WE BEAT THEM IN THE PRESIDENT GOLD CUP AT DHAKA IT IS 34 YEARS THAT WE HAVE NOT BEATEN THEM AND THE LAST WHEN WE BEAT JAPAN WAS IN 1970 FOR THAT BRONZE IT IS 49 YEARS WE HAVE NOT BEATEN THEM

That SUMS up the CRUCIFICATION after that QUATRET WAS NAILED AND KILLED IN THE ANNALS OF INDIAN FOOTBALL

This article is dedicated to ONE of my FRIEND a WORLD CUPPER who stays abroad at USA and who had played for his country in the 1994 World Cup His notification that HE LOVED TO READ THESE KIND OF ARTICLE ON EAST BENGAL is the reason I’m writing this piee dedicating it to him and ONE of my very CLOSE FRIEND who resides at New York for the bread and the butter that ought to be earned for a sweet living

Well- to those two FRIENDS, walking in my own lane till the TIME decides for us to cross our lanes so that we meet at the POINT were we are and we would cross the lanes