During its match against Mahabir Club on Friday, Gyan Bhairav players not only walked out in the 84th minute expressing dissatisfaction towards referee´s decision but also misbehaved with the referee. [break]
Gyan Bhairav Club was currently contesting in the Martyrs Memorial B Division League and was in the 10th position in the 15-team contest. It has two matches to play in the league and has 12 points from as many matches played.
According to a press statement released by ANFA on Sunday, Mahabir custodian Sudip Giri had been handed two-year ban while players Sunil Bhandari, Bharat Gurung, Kiran Subba Yakso, Yog Bahadur Gurung, Kuldip Karki and Deepak Karki had been slapped with a year ban from taking part in any kind of football tournaments conducted by ANFA and its affiliated bodies.
The club has also been fined Rs 75,000. Its officials Amit KC (coach), Kishor Ranjit (Manager), Niraj Thapa and Biswas Thapa Magar (officials) have been barred from conducting official roles and prohibited from the players´ box in any tournament hosted by ANFA for one year. The punishment will be effective from Sunday.
Tusal and Sankata who are yet to play against Gyan Bhairav have been declared winners with 3-2 goal margin.
The match between Gyan Bhairav and Mahabir turned controversial after Mahabir player Santosh Rai scored in the 84th minute making the score 2-0.
Gyan Bhairav players and officials protested the referee´s decision to allow the goal and left the field despite referee´s repeated calls to play full time. Gyan Bhairav´s goalie Sudip Giri kicked the ball toward spectators expressing dissatisfaction over referee´s decision of allowing the goal. The referee showed Giri yellow card for his action.
According to ANFA, Giri then manhandled referee and six other players joined him in misbehaving with the latter. Meanwhile, club officials including coach Amit KC, manager Kishor Ranjit and officials Niraj Thapa and Bishwas Thapa Magar also contributed to turn the situation more tense by chanting slogans against ANFA.
The last time such incident had occurred in football was in 2045 BS. On that occasion, Balkumari Khel Mandal, the first division club, was relegated to second division. Likewise, ANFA had also demoted A division club Galaxy to B division some six years earlier after it did not contest in A division league.
Gyan Bhairav turns down allegation
Gyan Bhairav Club has rejected all the allegations of ANFA. According to Sanjiv Shahi, the executive member of ANFA and the official of the Gyan Bhairav Club, the punishments were inspired by old rivalry.
"The punishment is inspired by Ganesh Thapa, the ANFA President, and Birat Jung Shahi, who harbored grudges against the club from the past. Thapa had told me that he would ´settle the score´ one day and now he got the best opportunity to take the revenge," said Shahi.
He also rejected that his players had manhandled the referee. "If players have manhandled the referee we wish to see it on video footage," said Shahi.
"Of course, the players were harassed with the referee and assistant referee´s decisions from the beginning. The referees were not fit enough to run along with the ball. The referee´s were baised against us from the very beginning of the league, but we never complained," added Shahi
Gyan Bhairav came into existence after it split from Sano Gaucharan Club and Birat Jung Shahi is the president of Sano Gaucharan. Meanwhile, Birat Jung Shahi declined to comment on the allegations of Gyan Bhairav.
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