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At a time when world football was hit by the worrying news of Emiliano Sala and his missing plane, things took a disturbing turn in Indian football as well.
News came in on Tuesday that Carlos Calvo was handed a three-game suspension by the All India Football Federation's (AIFF) Disciplinary Committee for alleged racist remarks during an Indian Super League (ISL) game.
Sportskeeda later revealed that the Spaniard Calvo directed his abuse at Delhi Dynamos' Gianni Zuiverloon, a Dutch defender playing his first season in the ISL.
ALSO READ: Calvo's remarks directed at Zuiverloon
Even before someone could process all this information, the AIFF Disciplinary Committee handed out a bunch of other suspensions - six months for Kerala Blasters' Zakeer Mundampara for throwing a ball at a referee, 3 games for Mailson Alves for a scuffle with other players and two other I-League sanctions.
But wait, what?
A player gets suspended six months for throwing a ball at a referee and only three games for racial abuse?
Don't get us wrong. We're not saying that Zakeer doesn't deserve a six-month ban. We're not making a case of sympathy for Zakeer. He definitely does deserve stringent sanctions for abusing the referee after being shown a second yellow card in an ISL game between Kerala Blasters and Mumbai City FC.
All we're saying is that racial abuse should be taken way more seriously by the AIFF than a three-game suspension.
According to the AIFF Disciplinary Committee, discriminating a fellow footballer based on his colour deserves the same amount of punishment that a player gets for his tussle with other players.
It's not clear what exactly the AIFF Disciplinary Committee considered while delivering its verdict. It had to only rely on the statements of both the individuals - Calvo and Zuiverloon - before coming to a decision.
But the AIFF Disciplinary Committee also had an admission from the Jamshedpur FC coach Cesar Ferrando, who was quoted in the report saying Ferrando didn't deny the charge and instead justified it by saying Zuiverloon had elbowed Calvo during the match.
If this is the case, even the coach deserves to be handed a touchline ban for supporting racism but the AIFF Disciplinary Committee reserves its harsh bans for trivial matters only.
According to its own disciplinary code,
"Anyone who offends the dignity of a person or group of persons through contemptuous, discriminatory or denigratory words or actions concerning race, colour, language, religion or origin shall be suspended for at least five matches. Furthermore, a stadium ban and a fine of at least Rs 3,00,000/- shall be imposed".
The AFC, in its Article 58.1 of the AFC Disciplinary and Ethics Code, recommends that a player should not indulge in any football activity for two months for a racism offence.
Yet, Calvo was only handed a three-match ban and will miss JFC's games against FC Goa, ATK and Mumbai City FC. He will return to action by February 16, which means it's not even a month away from football for the player.
The AIFF Disciplinary Committee has clearly handed out a weak sanction for racism this time, disappointing Zuiverloon, Delhi Dynamos and the entire public at large.
It should know better to seriously condemn racism and send out a message to all footballers stating that any act of discrimination will not be tolerated.
But if you look at history, it really hasn't.
Think of Achille Emana, a former Mumbai City FC player, being called 'Ragi Mudde' by a handful of unintelligent Bengaluru FC supporters last year. A couple of NorthEast United FC supporters were discriminated by two drunk youths in Chennaiyin FC.
There's no video evidence for the former - only a couple of BFC supporters claimed it indeed happened but the perpetrators were warned and asked to shut up. As for the second case, the Chennaiyin FC fans were caught on camera making indecent comments on the traumatised NEUFC fans.
Chennaiyin FC, its player Jeje Lalpekhlua and NEUFC owner John Abraham condemned the incident but the AIFF again passed the buck on the ISL and stadium security. AIFF's Disciplinary Code recommends a sanction of Rs 10 Lakh for the club but neither Chennaiyin nor Bengaluru were fined.
It looks unlikely that Calvo would be sanctioned further as well.
Well, that's how it is in Indian football.
