Duplicity of jersey numbers common in inter-school football

Given that the Mumbai Schools Sports Association is over a century-old and their inter-school football tournament is one of their most prestigious events, it came as a shocker to see one of the most basic rules of the beautiful game being violated yesterday.



Bombay Scottish's Adhish Rana and Shanay Gandhi both sporting No 19
on their backs during the MSSA U-14 Div II tie against Bombay Cambridge
at Azad Maidan yesterday. Scottish won 6-0. PIC/SURESH KK

In two separates matches, MiD DAY found players in a single team from the U-14 and U-16 leagues wearing jerseys bearing the same number. Worse still, the matter would have gone unnoticed had MiD DAY not been brought it to the attention of the referee and MSSA. Jersey numbers are allocated to players to help officials differentiate between them on a playing field. The differentiations could be in terms of goals scored, fouls committed, etc. Duplicity of jersey numbers is a strict no-no as it could lead to incorrect information being recorded or transmitted.

Bombay Scottish's (Mahim) Shanay Gandhi and Adhish Rana both sported No 19 on their backs during their U-14 Div II match against Bombay Cambridge (Andheri) at Azad Maidan yesterday. Moments later, Dr Antonio D'Silva's Abhishek Vaish and Avhad Kshitij both wore jerseys with No 17 on it during their U-16 Division III match against Parle Tilak (Vile Parle).

While Scottish coach Deepak Kamble said one of his players had worn last year's jersey and that's why the duplicity, referee Haresh Golar admitted he didn't even notice the error. "During the match I didn't notice that there were two players wearing the same jersey, but later I realised it and asked the coach, who admitted to making the error in the line up," said Golar.

MSSA meanwhile, were ignorant too. "Two players wearing the same jersey is not allowed. It is the referee, who needs to check that. The instructions are clearly given to coaches and referees but despite that if it's still happening then we need to rectify it," said MSSA football secretary Xavier Faria.

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