Heartbreaking, cruel, yet so typical

Indias FIFA World Cup Qualifier exit on Tuesday heralded an outpouring of national grief as the media leapt at the chance to wallow in the cruelty of a script all too familiar to a country that seemingly excels in valiant defeatldquoThere was bias certainly Otherwise there is no way this can be justified What were the referees thinking And still no noise about it I canrsquot believe this If you havenrsquot witnessed daylight robbery before only watch the highlights on repeatrdquo said a frustrated Shayon Pal puffing his cheeks out in anguish and ruffling his hair in unusual disorder Father Debayan who nodded in affirmation opined ldquoIf this is the way it is we will never be able to outsmart these teams Bribes and corruption ruin everything and sadly it is more common in sports than we can imaginerdquoCaptain Gurpreet Singh Sandhu confronting match officials Pic ScreengrabTuesdayrsquos World Cup qualifier served as a poignant portrayal of the challenges lowerranked teams face when pitted against established soccer giants in significant tournaments The game underscored the inherent imbalance in the scales of fairness evident on the grandest stage of all The only shortcoming that India faced against Qatar is that they had to win outright because rarely do they receive gamechanging calls in their favour and often are victims of these calls when traditional powers struggle Tuesday was no differentAlso Read Tears of adieu Sunil leaves India grievingThe setback in Doha on Tuesday shattered Indias hopes of progressing to the third round of Asian qualifying for the FIFA World Cup for the first time Despite scoring in the first half and appearing on track for a significant footballing milestone Indias momentum was thwarted when Youssef Ayman equalised in the 73rd minute The goal sparked considerable controversy with certain television replays suggesting that the ball had crossed the touchline just before the playWersquoll leave it hereINDQAT IndianFootball pictwittercom5KhtyOfrvSmdash FanCode FanCode June 11 2024Indias players some of whom had halted play under the belief that the ball had exited the field vehemently protested However with VAR technology not deployed the goal was upheld Asian champions Qatar having already secured qualification for the next round clinched the winning goal five minutes before the final whistle sealing Indias fateWATCH On Qatar vs India FIFA World Cup qualifier match row AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey says It was a wrong decision made by the referee and India was to face defeat because of that decision India was on the verge of scripting history For the first time India was inhellip pictwittercomSPmTYcWNKVmdash ANI ANI June 12 2024ldquoThis is a serious supervision error on the part of the referee and other match officials We are surprised that it took place in a crucial fixture like the Qualifier We seek intervention from both FIFA and AFC regarding the matter as it has practically cost us a place in Round 3 of the Qualifiers There are certain rules when you step onto a pitch be it any sport if those are not followed how do you expect the best teams to play the World Cuprdquo an AIFF official who requested anonymity told MidDay on WednesdayIndianFootball rigged India vs Qatar pictwittercomg0esjvBst6mdash Jerry John Varghese JerryJohnVargh1 June 11 2024India coach Igor Stimac did not mince his words while denouncing what he labelled an irregular goal in Indiarsquos 21 defeat It shouldnt occurrdquo he lamented Qatar were lucky tonight especially because they came back from 01 with an irregular goal the former Croatia international defender Stimac told reportersThis is cheating The ball went out Qatar choose to do cheating against India in a football match to qualify for the WorldCupDear Qatar you have lost all the rights to be called a professional teamIndianFootball FIFAWorldCup FIFAWWC IndiavsQatar Qatar cheating pictwittercom43t99LBozimdash Kunal Kaushik kunal23393 June 12 2024Shame on you FIFA This is Qualifying match between India vs Qatar on 11th June at Jassim Bin stadium the ball is clearly outside the goal line and yet they score refereee and Linesman should be sacked and why no VAR FIFAcom fifamedia fifaindiaorg TOIIndiaNews YASMinistry pictwittercommxeKgnXUNImdash DrNewmai newmai8510 June 12 2024I can confirm that now because I have seen the replay The whole ball was over the line and the goal was given It shouldnt be happening in todays football because that goal changed everything in this game As an organisation FIFA has enough power and resources at least in the crucial games and the World Cup qualifiers to use VAR Its kind of an injustice to my boys tonight because we were very close to winning this game and qualifying for the third round but it didnt happen he said