MSC champions
Hockey league verdict awards MSC, Mariners one point each from incomplete match
Mohammedan Sporting Club have been declared champions of the Dhaka Premier Division Hockey League after the Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF) stood by the 1-1 result of the incomplete last match of the league between the Black and Whites and Dhaka Mariner Young's Club.
The 1-1 result earning Mohammedan a point from that fixture means they ended the league 40 points from 15 matches, one more than runners-up Abahani, while Mariner Young's finished with 37 points.
The BHF took the decision at its executive committee yesterday, four months and 23 days after the decisive match of the super league stage ended incomplete after 44 minutes, with the game tied 1-1 at that point.
Mohammedan protested Mariners' equaliser and stopped playing, demanding video referral while Mariners demanded full points owing to Mohammedan's 'refusal to play'. The unsavoury incidents prompted the two Chinese umpires to leave the ground without giving any decision.
“According to the bylaws, the rest of the minutes of that incomplete match were supposed to take place the following day but there was no environment to hold the match. Besides, the foreign players and umpires had departed the next day. There was also a recommendation from the league committee to slash points of both teams but the meeting has decided that the result of 1-1 till 44 minutes of that match will stand,” BHF general secretary Abdus Sadeque said after emerging from a three-hour meeting yesterday.
“As the points have been split among Mohammedan and Dhaka Mariner Young's Club, Mohammedan have been declared champions,” Sadeque said, adding that both teams will have to face punishment.
“The disciplinary committee has been asked to submit a report within the next 15 days to find out who were responsible for that incomplete match. We will surely take actions in line with the recommendations,” said the former national player.
Mariner Young's Club's manager Nazrul Islam Mridha expressed his dissatisfaction over the decision and said that they would take a decision after consulting the matter with club management.