Viva Kerala was denied a crucial penalty in the match against Chirag United SC in later end of the second half when a scorcher from outside the box by captain MP Sakeer was deflected inside the box from the arm of Chirag United defender.
The shot was hit with such power that it was destined to the net.(Watch the video) The deflection later was cleared and Viva was awarded a corner kick. A goal at this moment would have completely change the game as Viva was dominating every minute before it.
Sakeer kept protesting on this and the referee was quick to show him a yellow card.
Viva Kerala is reported to be very upset about some decisions and rightly so. The team may write to AIFF regarding the quality of refereeing during the match.
It was not just Viva Kerala who were the receivers. In another match at Goa, 10 men Mahindra United was leading 2-1 against Dempo SC when the 93rd minute equalizer came in. Mahindra claims there was an offside decision which was called by the assistant referee but not seen by the referee thereby leading to a corner kick which resulted in the crucial goal.
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Saturday 24 October 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.