Don Bosco (Matunga) coach Leslie Machado and St Anne's sports-in-charge Sebastian D'Souza, cried foul after their Ahmed Sailor Boys' U-16 knockout match on Saturday was reduced to just 40 minutes (two halves of 20 minutes each). The MSSA Boys U-16 Div-I league matches were played across 60 minutes (30 minutes of two halves).

Matches too short
Machado was unhappy despite his team winning 2-0. "Ahmed Sailor matches were always 60 minutes but the referees told me that MSSA has instructed them to reduced it to 40 minutes. This is not good because if you are playing against a weak team, with such a short duration, teams tend to pack their defence to avoid conceding goals and are happy to take the match into the tie-breaker, which is then anybody's game," fumed Machado.