Palmeiras threaten to move FIFA

The fate of Sunday's abandoned IFA Shield final, between Brazil's Palmeiras and Calcutta giants East Bengal, continued to hang in the balance with the Indian Football Association saying it is unable to take a decision on the basis of the referee and match commissioner's report, even as the visiting team threatened to move world football's governing body FIFA.

Though both teams demanded that they be declared winners, IFA joint secretary Ranjit Gupta said the tournament committee will watch a video replay of the match on Wednesday to arrive at a final decision.

Briefing newspersons after an inconclusive meeting of the committee during the day, Gupta said: "On Friday, the committee will again hold a formal session, armed with the video footage. Hopefully, it will be able to take a decision then.

"It would have been very embarrasing for us if the footage was not available," he said, visibly displeased with the reports submitted by match commissioner M K Krishnamurthy and referee B Bhaskar.

Three policemen and several players were injured as the violence-hit final at the Salt Lake stadium was abandoned 35 minutes into the first half after the two teams came to blows on the ground itself.

Jo Paul Ancheri, Jackson Egogopong, Dipankar Roy and Anit Ghosh of East Bengal and some Brazilian players suffered injuries in the clashes and subsequent police action.

Meanwhile, before leaving for Delhi on way to Brazil, a Palmeiras official said, "We will definitely file a complaint with FIFA. We have already faxed a letter to our football federation on yesterday's developments."