Sabotage – here and there

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The floodlight sabotage incident at Estadio de Vallecas before the weekend’s La Liga match between Rayo and the Los Blancos got the Spanish media pondering the existence of a ‘banana republic’ in a neighbourhood of Madrid.

A member of the local media there was quoted screaming, “We are facing a new kind of crime: football terrorism. The police must find the culprits and bring them to justice.”

Any wonder what this has got to do with football in India, or more specifically Kerala? Well, memories of an incident from a night in January, 2010, at Kozhikode’s EMS Corporation Stadium prop up.

There is a ‘banana republic’ mystery, associated with the night in Kozhikode when the I-League football match between host Viva Kerala and JCT was abandoned because of floodlights’ malfunctioning.

On January 16, the floodlights at the venue went blind, and unruly scenes followed, including a section of the spectators ransacking the ticket counter.

Twelve days later, another I-League game, with Air India, was postponed for the same reason. Preliminary inquiry revealed a clear indication of sabotage with a nail found hammered through the electrical circuit.

Two years have passed — in between there was a change of government too — and the so-called investigation into the sabotage case is now coming to a close. The coming month, Crime Branch investigators would file their final report.

Who sabotaged the floodlights circuit? Why was it done? Apparently, these same questions are being asked about the Rayo incident too. But, after two years of investigations into the Kozhikode incident, what remains is a cloud of mystery.

“It was found that the circuit wires were of poor quality and failed to withstand power fluctuations,” said crime branch CI K.B. Jeevanand. “The nail is insignificant here. Our enquiry was to find if the incident incurred any loss to the Corporation and it didn’t. So, the case is over,” he clarified. So simple!

The investigators have now requested for closing the case with nothing left to inquire. Imagine this: a case that possibly involved a criminal hand and caused havoc on a football night and left a blotch on the integrity of the game is getting washed down the gutter.

Just like that. If only the media and fans in Madrid knew about this incident, they will know where to find the real banana republic or as colloquially called the Vellarikka Pattanam.