Match referee Jalaluddin and match commissioner Rafiqul Alam on Saturday appears to have violated the by-laws of the Bangladesh Premier League while officiating the match between Mohammedan SC and Rahmatganj MFS which had been abandoned due to heavy downpour on Friday. According to the clause 7.1.4 of the by-laws provided by the Bangladesh Football Federation, a match should be resumed from the time when the abandoned match was stopped.
The supposed match was stopped on the 7th minute on Friday.
Match referee resumed the match with a drop ball at 4:15pm on Saturday but during cooling break, match commissioner Rafiqul Alam instructed him to conduct the match for full 90 minutes.
Even though the referee is bound not to listen to anyone off the pitch, not even the match commissioner, but he violated the by-laws and followed what the match commissioner had instructed him.
Alam admitted that he instructed the referee to play the match for full 90 minutes because a top official of the professional football league committee forced him to do so.
‘The match started with a drop-kick after seven minutes as per by-laws,’ said the match commissioner after the match.
‘But the league committee co-chairman Abdur Rahim forcefully instructed me to run the match for full 90 minutes. As a result, I told the referee to do that,’ said Alam.
Referee’s committee co-chairman Manirul Islam also admitted that the match had violated the by-laws.
‘Referee is the prime authority during a game and he is not bound to follow others’ instructions,’ he said.
‘But the referee, who officiated the match, was provoked by the outsiders and conducted the game for full 90 minutes.’
The referee allowed Rahmatganj to make four substitutions, which was also against the laws.
Rahmatganj coach Kamal Babu, however, expressed his concerns and was planning to protest against the referee’s decision.
MSC won the match by 5-0.
-With New Age input
