Bibhash Lodh, BS News Agency: Mohammedan had threatened to boycott the IFA Shield, alleging that they were defeated by an offside goal in the match against Mohun Bagan Super Giant in the Super Six of the Kolkata Football League. They sought redress from the IFA. They had said that they would not participate in the Shield if justice was not done. IFA Secretary Anirban Dutt agreed to sit in on discussions with the officials of the white and black brigade to allow Mohammedan to play in the Shield. He also held a meeting with Mohammedan Football Secretary Belal Amed on Monday afternoon at his office. But although Mohammedan assured an investigation into the referee's mistakes in that match as per the official's words, he did not accept the unreasonable demand of the Kolkata Football League to give a replay of the match with Mohun Bagan. Due to this, Mohammedan walked on the path of boycotting the Shield.
When Mohammedan did not budge from their decision to not play despite various explanations, IFA Secretary Anirban took the initiative to field an alternative team. Although United Sports, Bhavanipur was offered to play in the Shield, they were not able to get them as they were not ready to play in the Shield in the current situation. For a while, it seemed that IFAK would have to organize the Shield with 5 teams. Only Punjab FC would be in the East Bengal group. Finally, towards the end of the night, IFA was able to convince Calcutta Customs to play in the IFA Shield. In this, the state football governing body released the new schedule of the Shield, keeping Calcutta Customs in the East Bengal group along with Punjab FC.
The IFA Shield was supposed to start on September 22 with the East Bengal-Mohammedan match. Instead, Mohun Bagan and Srinidhi Deccan FC will face each other in the first Shield match in Group A on September 23 at the Mohun Bagan ground. East Bengal will face Calcutta Customs in the first match of Group B on September 24 at the East Bengal ground. Srinidhi Deccan and NorthEast United will face each other on September 26. No venue has been mentioned in the schedule for this match. The venue for the Calcutta Customs and Punjab FC match on September 27 is also not mentioned. Mohun Bagan and North East United will face each other in the last match of the group on September 29 at the Mohun Bagan ground. East Bengal and Punjab FC will fight in the last match of Group B on September 30 at the East Bengal ground. The starting time of all these matches is set at 3 pm.
The four teams in the first two places from the two groups will fight in the semi-finals on September 4. The venue and time of these two semi-finals have not been mentioned in the schedule yet. At the same time, the date, time and venue of the final are not mentioned in the schedule.
Mohammedan lost 2-3 to Mohun Bagan Super Giants at the Barasat Stadium in Kolkata Football League. Despite playing with 10 men for 38 minutes, Mohun Bagan won the match and became the league champion. After the match, Mohammedan coach Shahid Raman or the officials did not make any excuses or complain about the loss. However, the next day, they suddenly felt that Mohun Bagan scored the third and winning goal from offside at the Barasat ground. They complained about it verbally to the IFA. They said that if this was not remedied, Mohammedan would not play the IFA Shield. They would have to give a replay of their match with Mohun Bagan. If the IFA wanted to, they could not have given any importance to Mohammedan's words. But IFA Secretary Anirban Dutt did not do that. Instead, Mohammedan sat down for discussions with the officials. Mohammedan's demand for a match replay is unreasonable. The referee or linesman could have made a mistake. But that never changes the outcome of the match once the match is over. Earlier, when there was no referee, teams were victims of referee-linesman mistakes many times in the World Cup. Even after the current referee came, the dissatisfaction of the teams with the referee-linesman's decisions has not decreased at all, which was felt in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. There is so much Kolkata Football League. There is no scope for applying referee. But just because of that, it is not appropriate to point fingers at the allegations that the referee-linesman made incompetent or biased decisions. Therefore, it was not right for Mohammedan to make such allegations or demand a replay. Rather, they should have participated in the Shield and tried to become champions and proved that they deserve to win the trophy.