A controversial refereeing decision in the match between Qatar and India effectively ended India’s chance of advancing to the third round of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, angering football fans in India. They have questioned the spirit of the game and the lack of VAR.
It would have been a historic moment for India to secure a place in the qualifiers, but its quest was thwarted by some poor refereeing in a controversial match against Qatar.
Qatar, the Asian Champions, benefited from the controversial goal and won the match against India 2-1, which was played at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium on June 11.
Indians were cruising along well and were ahead 1-0 thanks to Lallianzuala Chhangte’s 37th-minute goal. However, luck was not in favor of India, and in the 73rd minute, Yousef Aymen scored the equalizer. The controversial goal was judged fair even after the ball had gone out of play. Shortly afterward, the second goal was scored in the 85th minute by Ahmed Al-Rawi.
Indian goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu saved a header from Qatar, but the ball slipped out of his hands. The ball was dead and out of play, and the Indian players did not react, waiting for the referee’s whistle. However, the referee believed the ball was still in play, allowing Qatar player Al Hassan to kick the ball back into play to square it to Aymen, who then passed it into an empty goal.
India needed to win the game to make it into the third round of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers. However, thanks to the referee’s blunders, India could not achieve this. Indian players repeatedly objected to this blunder, but it did not affect Kim Woo-Sung, the South Korean referee, who even handed out a yellow card to India’s Sahal.
One user on X wrote,
“The worst part about this is that Qatar players No. 5 & 6 clearly knew that the ball had gone outside, and still they continued celebrating the goal.”
Another user wrote,
“Cheating is not only done by referees but by players too. Sportsmanship is gone from sports. Watching sports these days is not fun like it used to be decades back.”
