Free-for-all after IFA Shield match

FIFA's slogan of 'fair play' was all but forgotten as players and officials of Brazil's Palmeiras and Bangaldeshi outfit Mukti Joddha jostled and came to blows on the field itself soon after the end of their IFA Shield semi-final match in Calcutta on Friday.

Some spectators and a journalist were injured as baton-wielding policemen charged at the excited crowd, triggering off a minor stampede in the galleries of the Howrah stadium.

Trouble erupted when manager of the victorious Palmeiras team Marcelo Dedeschi Teixeira went to exchange customary pleasantries with the Mukti Joddha adminsitrative manager Jahangir Alam minutes after the rough match came to an end, with the Brazilians finishing on the winning side with a 2-1 scoreline.

Alam and Teixeira soon engaged in fisticuffs as some other Brazlian players also joined in roughing up the Bangladeshi official.

Alam later complained to newspersons that Teixeira had hurled abuses at the Bangladeshi team. However, Brazilian coach Humberto Ferreira denied the allegation and complained that Alam had launched an unprovoked physical assault on him.

"We have complained in writing to the IFA [Indian Football Association]. We have also sent a fax to the Bangladesh Football Federation, through which we will move AFC [Asian Football Confederation] and FIFA [Federation Internationale de Football Association] for punitive action against Palmeiras," Mukti Joddha manager Abu Hasan Choudhury said late in the evening.

The situation soon took an ugly turn as the players and officials of the two teams engaged in a free-for-all.

Caught offguard, the police soon swung into action and separated the two teams.

However, by then the frayed tempers had spilled over to the galleries, with a section of the crowd throwing missiles onto the ground.

Two baton-weilding policemen soon charged towards the galleries to control the crowd. As the spectators scurried back to escape the policemen's batons, two middle-aged men fell down and got njured in the stampede.

Hindustan Times reporter Sanjib Guha suffered a leg injury as a number of spectators fell over him.

Mukti Joddha physio Dr Akhtar Ahmed alleged that he was "mercilessly beaten up" by Palmeiras's reserve custodian Jefferson.

Union Minister of State for Telecommunications Tapan Sikdar, who was present at the stadium, tried to pacify the agitated teams.

"They are both our guests. So we can't blame either of the teams. However, such ugly incidents on the soccer field are not acceptable," he said.

IFA secretary Ranjit Gupta denied any knowledge of the incident.

"I have no information that such things have taken place," he said.