Women Footballers Assault Photographer During Local Match in Mumbai
Thane District FA women's team assaulted photographer Pushpak Shirwadkar, after they were peeved at their team's suspension from the Maharashtra state inter-district women's tournament
Peeved at their team's suspension from the Maharashtra state inter-district women's football tournament in progress here, some players from a suspended side assaulted a photographer covering it.
Players from the Thane District FA women's team assaulted photographer Pushpak Shirwadkar, who was doing his duty.
The organisers later called the police who came from the Azad Maidan police station and took the players, photographer to the station for questioning.
The Thane women were upset as their team was earlier in the day disqualified from the tournament by the organising committee because it was found that they had fielded ineligible players for their match against Dhule on Monday.
The OC took this decision after receiving a complaint from Nagpur District FA that Thane had played with five players who had been registered with Mumbai District FA and had also represented Mumbai Clubs.
The tournament rules clearly state that the players of the participating DFA (District Football Association) should be registered players from the concerned districts.
If any player is found to be registered with clubs from other districts, then the entire team may be scratched from the tournament and strict disciplinary action taken against the team/player.
Since Thane were disqualified, the OC also decided to reschedule the fixtures and requested Dhule, the third team in the group, to play against Nagpur. In the original schedule, Nagpur were to play against Thane.
But according to officials present at the venue, the Thane players showed defiance and entered the ground demanding that they be allowed to continue and to play the tournament.
They were not prepared to move out and after some persuasion from the organisers, they came out.
But just as the match between Nagpur and Dhule was about to start, one of the Thane player objected to the presence of photographer Shirwadkar and questioned him as to why he was taking photos and then abused him and also kicked and punched the photographer.