Wednesday, September 22, 2010

FINED, BANNED AND OUT OF ASIAD

It is one of the harshest punishments meted out for indiscipline in recent years, and one that will hit the Singapore under-23 football team hard at the upcoming Asian Games football competition.

On Tuesday night, a five-man Football Association of Singapore (FAS) disciplinary committee delivered its verdict on the 16 players involved in the Sept 7 brawl between the Young Lions and Beijing Guoan.

Beijing's Meng Yang and the Young Lions' Khairul Nizam and Fairoz Hasan - both of whom were expected to feature at the Asian Games - received the biggest punishments.

Meng, 19, was banned for a year from all football-related activities and slapped with a $3,000 fine for kicking Young Lions' Faritz Abdul Hameed's head, while Khairul and Fairoz were each given an eight-month ban from all football-related activities and fined $2,000 and $1,500, respectively.

Three of the 10 Beijing players and four of the six Young Lions were each fined between $1,000 and $3,000 and suspended between four to 12 months.

The rest were fined.

Both teams have also been fined $5,000 and docked five points from the S.League.

"This has been the most embarrassing display of players' conduct on the field that I don't think we've ever seen two teams in the S.League slogging it out (like this)," said the committee's chairman K. Bala Chandran, who held a press conference early on Wednesday morning after the marathon 10-hour hearing.

In response to a question from MediaCorp, the lawyer was scathing of Meng - a substitute in that match - for his malicious kick on Faritz.

"His act was the worst. He kicked a player, who was trying to stop the fight, in the head and it could've led to very serious injury," he said. "We looked in relation to Noh Alam Shah's case (in 2007) where the suspension was reduced from a year to seven months. In this case, we thought one year should merit."

The committee, which included deputy chairman Wee Pan Lee and committee members Eusope Othman, Alan Wee and Interkhab Khan, ruled the two sides' remaining fixtures in the S.League will continue, although the match between the two sides, which was abandoned with a minute to go with the score at 1-1, will not be replayed.

The Asian Football Confederation and FIFA could still decide to extend the bans continentally and globally.

The Young Lions and Beijing will decide whether to appeal - they have a week to do so.

Sanctions (fine and ban from all football-related activities respectively):

Young Lions:
Khairul Nizam - $2,000 fine, eight months' ban
Fairoz Hasan - $1,500 fine, eight months' ban
Gabriel Quak - $1,000 fine, four months' ban
Madhu Mohana - $1,000 fine, four months' ban
Irwan Shah - $2,000 fine
Safuwan Baharudin - $2,000 fine.

Beijing Guoan:
Meng Yang - $3,000 fine, one year ban
Su Boyang - $2,000 fine, eight months' ban
Zhang Ye - $1,500 fine, eight months' ban
Yan Hai - $3,000 fine
Yu Tianzhu - $3,000 fine
Li Tixiang - $2,500 fine
Cui Yu - $2,000 fine
Tang Miao - $2,000 fine
Zhang Zhaohui - $2,000 fine
Zhao Yang - $2,000 fine