Bruzon urges AFC to investigate Kings-Odisha match

Bashundhara Kings Spanish coach Oscar Bruzon urged the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to investigate the encounter between Bashundhara Kings and Odisha FC after his side suffered a 1-0 defeat to the home side in Group D final match at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, India, on Monday.

"I cannot make a technical analysis of the game for the sake of football. The AFC has to investigate what happened with Bangladesh teams in the AFC Cup. In the last game we played at home, we already put a complaint that the referee tried to stop us in advance. Good that our players showed accurate resilience. They came back," Bruzon said at the post-match presser.

"But today, I repeat, for the sake of football, AFC has to look at what happened with the referees. There are two possibilities, one is an economical reason and the second one is a direct instruction. So, this is my analysis of the game and I don't want to add anything else," Bruzon said before he left the podium without taking any questions from the media.

Needing only a single point to progress, the Bangladesh Premier League champions were on the verge of creating a piece of history to enter into the inter-zonal semifinals of the competition as the second Bangladeshi outfit after Abahani. The four-time champions, however, had to leave the competition heartbroken.

Kings were reduced to 10 men in the first-half stoppage time when Vietnam referee Ngo Duy Lan gave a marching order to Kings' Uzbekistan midfielder Asror Gafurov following a behind-tackle on Odisha's Ahmed Jahouh in the midfield.

Gafurov left the ground in tears, repeatedly screaming 'why'. Bruzon, too, was booked for his protest, questioning the referee's decision to send Gafurov off.

It is worth mentioning that Odisha forward Mawihmingthanga pushed Gofurov soon after the foul was committed, but surprisingly the referee did not book the player.

During the 2021 edition of the AFC Cup, Kings needed a win over ATK Mohun Bagan to progress to the knockout stage in the group last match. That game, the Bangladesh champions had a first-half lead but they failed to hold on to it in the second half, especially after defender Sushanta Tripura was given a marching order in the stoppage time of the first half. That match ended in a 1-1 draw and Mohun Bagan progressed to the inter-zonal play-off semifinals as Group D champions.