Calcutta Football League: Tollygunge coach Subhash Bhowmick hits out at fixing allegations

I-League-winning decorated Tollygunge coach Subhash Bhowmick on Thursday strongly refuted allegations of match fixing, which has rocked the Calcutta Football League. A premier division league match has come under the scanner of FIFA integrity watchdog, which has deemed that the Tollygunge Agragami-NBP Rainbow AC August 25 fixture was 'manipulated'.

Bhowmick, however, has hit back at the allegations claiming they have video evidence to prove it wrong. "The match was live telecast. The AIFF has so many committees. They must come and scan through the footage. Why are they (All India Football Federation) bringing out the report in public," Bhowmick said.

Tollygunge, who are currently fifth in the Calcutta Football League Premier Division A table, won the match 2-1. It is believed that Switzerland-based Sportradar had a prior knowledge of the result and intimated the AIFF Integrity Officer, Javed Siraj, and the Asian Football Confederation along with the world governing body over the last week.

Siraj then wrote to Indian Football Association, the governing body of the sport in West Bengal, to carry out an investigation and revert. "I'm going to send a reply to the AIFF asking for more details on the report sent by their integrity officer," IFA secretary Utpal Ganguli said.

AIFF vice-president Subrata Dutta, who also heads the IFA, said they are against any kind of rigging. "We want to know how to go ahead with the case. We don't know what to tell the two clubs about this. We first need more details on the case," Dutta said.