Indian Football Round-up: 5 Biggest Controversies of 2018 

#1 Gourav Mukhi age-fraud

Gourav Mukhi is a name that was talked about a lot this season, for the positives at first and then for the bitter reasons.

Jamshedpur FC was facing Bengaluru FC and the 71st minute saw a change being made - Gourav Mukhi of JFC making his ISL debut and becoming the youngest player to appear in the league - just 16 years old. A few minutes later, the 'youngster' did well to get past the Bengaluru FC defence and take the title of the youngest ISL goal scorer.

But things soon changed upside down when few three-year old reports came back into the limelight. It was the Sub Junior National Football Championship, 2015 when Jharkhand won the final thrashing Goa 8-3. The crown didn't last long as an enquiry made by AIFF found that 5 players in the team were overage and had submitted false age certificates. Jharkhand was disqualified, fined and coach suspended for the mischief. One player among the five was Gourav Mukhi.

The championship was held for players below the age of 15 and Mukhi overaged this criterion in 2015. Therefore, it is a basic calculation that reveals, the player is older than his claimed 16.

The striker grabbing too much attention, brought this past into the notice of the authorities who declared an investigation into the subject. Finally, AIFF found that the player had submitted false certificates again and was punished. He was handed a six-month suspension from the game and the Central Registration System (CRS) and Competition Management System (CMS) registrations were cancelled and revoked.

In a league like ISL with no age bars, a player submitting false age proof is a serious concern. The clubs should resort to never support any such inappropriate practices from the part of players. By the misconduct, Gourav Mukhi caught international headlines as age fraud in Indian football. Mukhi has therefore been the biggest controversy of Indian football in 2018.