Shillong, Jul 21: Laitumkhrah, hitherto one of the strongest teams in the Shillong Sports Association’s U-20 Fourth Division 2025, have been punished by the SSA for fielding four ineligible players in their second round match against Golflink last week.
That match saw Laitumkhrah win 4-0 on the pitch, which should have put them through to the quarterfinals while knocking out Golflink. However, the latter subsequently registered a protest with the SSA, which the governing body upheld.
The protest concerned four players – Dabetskhem Rympei, Mebankhraw Nongrum, Mebakor Iawphniaw and Yeomanry Son Shadap – who, the SSA said in its decision, should not have been fielded for Laitumkhrah as they had “failed to obtain a club transfer in the usual manner as per rule No. 28 of the Football Tournament Rules” of the SSA. (Shadap’s name was included in the SSA’s decision even though he did not feature in Laitumkhrah’s squad that day.)
What this means to TSR is that the four have been registered as players with some other club and had not completed the SSA’s inter-club transfer that would enable them to play for Laitumkhrah. The SSA did conduct screening of players before the season but this was for age verification.
Laitumkhrah, TSR has been told, did get no-objection certificates for the four players from their registered club, believing that this was all that was necessary given that the Fourth Division is a youth tournament but this is not how the SSA has seen it.
The SSA’s tournament committee has thus awarded Golflink a 3-0 win in the match, which should put them through to the quarterfinals even though they haven’t scored a single goal on the pitch in either of the two second round games. Laitumkhrah will play Laitlulong tomorrow and will need to win by 3-0 at least to qualify and do so without the aforementioned four players, who have been suspended from SSA competitions for one year backdated to the ill-fated match with Golflink on 18th July.
(TSR file photo of Laitumkhrah players)
