"First leg at home unfair to us", says Coppell

"It makes a mockery of the league when we finish second and we don’t have the advantage of playing the second leg at home," said the Kerala head coach.

“I personally think we were wronged, but it’s a situation that has developed, we have to deal with it," said Coppell.

Steve Coppell feels that it’s unfair that the Kerala Blasters FC has the first match of its two-leg semifinal at home despite finishing higher than Delhi Dynamos in the Indian Super League table after the league phase.

“It makes a mockery of the league when we finish second and we don’t have the advantage of playing the second leg at home,” said the Kerala head coach, a former England World Cupper and Manchester United winger, here on Saturday evening.

“I personally think we were wronged, but it’s a situation that has developed, we have to deal with it but I think it would be nice to have the second leg at home.”

The Delhi coach Gianluca Zambrotta admitted that he was surprised too by the ISL decision since his team finished third in the league table, behind Kerala.

“It could be advantageous for Delhi, I don’t understand why the ISL has done this. We see Mumbai City (the league topper) playing its first semifinal leg away in Kolkata,” said the Italian. “But the ISL has decided to do it differently for us but we have to abide by the decision.”