Red was wrong: Sony

“Sheikh Jamal DC beat two of the Kolkata giants. They will beat us too and take the shield home? No, we could not let this happen,” Sanjay Sen, the coach Kolkata Mohammedan Sporting Club told after the enthralling final at the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday night where his side beat Sheikh Jamal 4-3 (1-1) in tiebreakers to take home the shield after 43 years.
But the way it was done, did not go down well with the Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club players and officials. Coach Joseph Afusi was seen fuming against referee Santosh Kumar quite a number of times, especially when his talismanic forward Sony Norde was shown a straight red card for an alleged  slap on Mohammedan defender Luciano Sabrosa's face. The Haitian only raised his hand in frustration, but it hardly touched Sabrosa's face. But the referee from Kerala astonishingly showed him a straight red and after realizing the stupidity of his decision, showed a second yellow to Sabrosa for play-acting.
“I still believe it wasn't a red card. The referee made a mistake and his mistake was proved when he showed the other played the red,” said Sony in his reaction yesterday.
The Kolkata news dailies also termed the red card as a ridiculous decision by the referee and labeled it as a turning point of the match.
Sheikh Jamal players and officials did not turn up for the prize giving ceremony and official press conference after the match as the Mohammedan supporters had stormed into the pitch and hurled crackers to celebrate their victory. The team management however arranged a press conference yesterday and clarified their position.
“Everyone saw on television what happened in the field. We have nothing to say about refereeing and we have taken things sportingly. We could not attend the ceremony due to crowd trouble as we waited 35 minutes inside the dressing room,” said team's acting manager Abdul Gaffer.  
Manzur Kader, the president of the club, said they had a great time in Kolkata and they played the best football, but only the final was a disappointment.
“These sorts of incidents (red card) do happen in this part of the world. But we still had the chance to win it when the two teams were down to 10 men. We played well even after that but I couldn't understand the coach's (Afusi's) tactics of bringing in Ali Abdullahi in place of Emeka Darlington, when we needed goals,” said Kader, who reportedly let his emotions quite clear at the dressing room after the defeat.
Kader also said that despite the defeat, the team had won over the plaudits of pundits and football lovers of Kolkata.
In fact Sheikh Jamal players have not only won plaudits, some of them have become targets of the Kolkata giants. Mohun Bagan has reportedly made an offer to Sony for 150,000-dollars-a-season and 80,000-dollars-a-season for skipper Mamunul Islam. Sohel Rana, who was arguably the best player of the final, is also reportedly under the radar of Kolkata clubs.
“A Mohun Bagan official was talking to Sony and Mamunul about transfers in front of me. I've heard a few other I League clubs are also interested about them,” confirmed team manager Abdul gaffer.
It remains to be seen how much Manzur Kader is willing to up the ante to keep his prized possessions at home.
Meanwhile, the team will return to Dhaka at 10:30am today.