Kolkata: Peerless SC are set to be crowned Calcutta Football League (CFL) champions as they confirmed their top position in the premier division 'A on Thursday after second-placed East Bengal failed to turn up for their final outing at the Kalyani Stadium, thus giving its opponent Calcutta Customs Club a "walk-over".
This will be the first time that a team outside the city's big-three - East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting - will lay their hands on the local title in 61 years.
Peerless have 23 points from 11 matches. East Bengal needed to win by a margin of minimum seven goals in its final match against Calcutta Customs, and the red and gold brigade did not show up for the match while issuing an appeal to the Indian Football Association (IFA), the governing body for the sport in West Bengal, to postpone the match to a date on or after October 21.
In a statement, the club said that its head coach Alejandro Menendez is on leave and would like the match to be rescheduled, barely an hour before the game.
The IFA declined the request and the match was set to take place as per schedule on Thursday with Customs ready to field their full team.
After East Bengal did not turn up, the match was adjudged as a "walk over."
The game was initially scheduled for September 29, but was abandoned owing to water-logging at East Bengal's home ground.
This means East Bengal complete its League assignments and finish with 20 points from 11 matches.
The IFA's CFL sub-committee will now meet and discuss the report given by the referee and match commissioner on the match and decide on the next step on resumption after the festival break, and Peerless will then be officially crowned champions.
"We will go through the match commissioner's report and then take the due course of action. We'll do the obvious, which is three points for Customs while points won't be deducted from EB," IFA secretary Joydeep Mukherjee said.
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