Comment: Who Is To Blame?

Last week, Mohun Bagan sent a strongly-worded letter to Bhaichung Bhutia alleging the player of being ‘too occupied with other activities’ and even went on to state that the performance of their skipper ‘was not up to the desired standard’.

Mohun Bagan cited that the poor display by Bhaichung in the later stages of the I-League was one of the primary reasons as to why the club couldn’t win the title. The club further said that the focus of their star player had shifted with football becoming a ‘secondary interest’.

Now if we analyse the reasons mentioned in the letter, Bhaichung was chastised by the club primarily on footballing grounds and not disciplinarian. At any club in the world, the final call on the on-field performance is or should be of the coach. Going by this rule, there are two possibilities:

a)      That the coach of Mohun Bagan was consulted before sending the letter to Bhaichung and he had an equal hand in the drama.

b)      That the Mohun Bagan officials didn’t bother to speak to the coach and directly sent the letter to Bhaichung.

Coach Karim Bencherifa was quoted saying that the issue was ‘unfortunate’ and that it was a matter between the ‘club and the captain’. If we accept this statement, then option b appears to be a strong possibility.

In that case, Mohun Bagan has disrespected the coach’s opinion as not important before show causing a senior player. Interestingly, though club general secretary Anjan Mitra talks of the footballing reasons while show causing Bhaichung and then states that the coach is no way involved in the scenario which means that for the officials, the coach’s opinion is not important or doesn’t matter.

If the coach isn’t involved or even his opinion wasn’t taken on footballing matters, the stature of the coach is belittled. In this case, one wonders as to why a club like Mohun Bagan need a coach in the first place! Maybe the officials can do better!

There is a section which believes that Mohun Bagan’s show cause was merely Anjan Mitra’s personal attack on Bhaichung. If that is the case, then maybe the club should have better coordination amongst themselves and not let their leaders use their power to settle their personal vendetta.

Mohun Bagan, the club as a whole which involves the officials, coach and the technical team, had time and again covered Bhaichung’s absence from the training sessions and claimed to have backed their star player. If one carefully looks at the situation, it’s not that Mohun Bagan backed Bhaichung; all they did was to cover themselves as it was the trio of officials, coach and the technical team who gave the green signal to the Sikkimese Sniper to participate in the reality show; while the season was at a crucial juncture.

The Mariners mentioned that they decided to show cause only after the matter had gone beyond their tolerance levels. Bhaichung’s performance, even after joining the reality show, didn’t appear to have been dipped as he scored some crucial goals and the club, as a whole, kept praising their skipper throughout.

Had the club been serious then they could or would have reprimanded Bhaichung for reporting on the day of their AFC Cup tie against Al Wehdat in Jordan. The club kept mum and decided to take action only after the player refused to turn up for the exhibition tie at Jaipaiguri which casts a doubt in the minds of people over Mohun Bagan’s intentions.

The Green and Maroons said that Bhaichung had breached the promise of not missing the training sessions when they had given their affirmation to his reality show participation. The question arises as to why the club remained silent all the while and kept defending their player; which once again just goes to show that the club was only supporting their collective decision to allow Bhaichung for the show and not backing the player.

Yes, professionalism is a term which won’t be used for Mohun Bagan as a club for now as they could have handled the situation better. And instead of blaming Bhaichung, they must introspect and ask as to which club in the world would allow their key player to participate in a reality show while the club is fighting for the I-League title and the AFC Cup.

As to who is to blame for the whole drama, it’s the club as a whole...      

Rahul Bali.