India shared SAFF U-19 Women's title due to crowd trouble, safety of women: AIFF secretary

Following the final on Thursday, hosts Bangladesh and India had to share the SAFF U-19 Women's Championship trophy due to the "simmering situation" and security concerns.

While outlining the reasoning for the choice, a senior All India Football Federation (AIFF) official brought up grave security concerns over the nation's age-group teams' international tournament trip.

"Despite being declared winners after the spin of the coin, we decided to accept the officials’ request for sharing the trophy as the situation was simmering and a section of the home fans was creating disturbances,” acting AIFF secretary M Satyanarayan told The Indian Express.

“Since the security of the players and other team officials is our utmost priority, the AIFF decided to agree to the request of the organisers,” he said.

In the tournament final, India's U-19 women's team played Bangladesh at Dhaka's BSSS Mostafa Kamal Stadium. The Indian girls played well to seize the lead, even if they were scared by the large home fans. But after Bangladesh tied the score in injury time at the end of the second half, the referee announced that penalties would be used to decide the winner.

Amazingly, every single player on both teams made the conversion on their kicks. After consulting with the match commissioner, the referee abruptly decided that a coin flip would be used to determine the winner instead of carrying out the sudden death penalties. Indian team won the coin toss.

That wasn't the end of the story, either, as the Indian contingent was intimidated by the rowdy crowd and the Bangladeshi players refused to leave the field in protest. Additionally, there were complaints of spectators embarrassing SAFF authorities and tournament organisers by hurling stones and bottles onto the ground.

Wrestling selection trials for Olympic Qualifiers, Asian C'ships on March 10-11