Football Sri Lanka (FSL) is likely to report referee Feras Taweel to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on his erratic decision made against the team which caused immense injustice and hurt as the Sri Lankans lost 1-0 their curtain raiser fixture against Bangladesh at the 13th SAFF Soccer Tournament played at the National Stadium in Male on Friday.
The Syrian born Taweel who is a top-rated referee in the AFC panel, made a comedy of errors, out of which one caused the Sri Lankan camp to pay heavily and even to lose the game at a time when they dominated play in all departments in search of their first goal.
It all happened in the 56th minute of the game when the Bangladeshi strikers were in momentum. They surged ahead into opposition territory and just 30-metres away from the goal mouth, Sri Lankan defender Duckson Pulas made a valiant effort to foil the rival move and ended up being penalized for a hand ball. Referee Feras immediately offered Bangladesh a penalty for the offence.
Television replays clearly indicated that firstly the referee was positioned quite a distance away from where the incident occurred and a penalty could be given only when an incident occurred inside the ‘box area’. In this instance, the correct decision should have been nothing other than granting a free kick.
It has to be stated that at the time this incident occurred the Sri Lankans were in full swing and had a firm grip on the game and dominated territory while all the while attacking their rivals.
With this incident the game took a drastic turn as the morale of the Sri Lankan team started to decline that resulted in them losing confidence and control of the game.
Moreover, three players were booked - two yellow cards and a red card for rough play.
An official said it was high time that AFC be vigilant to reassess these situations and assign referees who are capable of performing well under pressure without causing injustice and destroying team morale while bringing disrepute to the world’s most popular sport.