Plenty of questions to ask after ACL scandal

GOAL – KUALA LUMPUR, When the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) professionalised the continent’s Champions League in 2009, not in a million years had it envisaged a semi-final descending into the chaos which was seen in Korea on Wednesday when a mass brawl broke out in Suwon Bluewings match against Al Sadd.

It was a bad night for Asian football. And you suspect the AFC will have to act strongly and swiftly after such an episode. In a showpiece game such as a Champions League semi-final, the melee was an awful promotion.

It all occurred after Al Sadd striker Mamadou Niang’s 81st-minute goal, which arrived when Suwon claimed they had kicked the ball out of play following a collision between Tahir Zakariya and Choi Sung-Hwan. From the resultant stoppage, Kader Keita booted the ball forward indiscriminately, only for Niang to run onto the loose ball and round keeper Jung Sung-Ryong to make it 2-0.

Despite the controversy, the Al Sadd players celebrated near the corner flag, prompting near-instant Suwon protests led by Croatian defender Mato Neretljak. Players and officials from both sides soon were verbally arguing with some coming to blows. Suwon boss Yoon Sung-Hyo could be heard shouting at Al Sadd coach Jorge Fossati “ball out, ball out” on the sidelines.

However the strike, a crucial away goal too, stood.

The tension seemed to be easing until a Suwon supporter at the Grand Bleu end jumped onto the pitch and grabbed the shirt of Al Sadd keeper Mohammed Saqr, prompting an angry response from his team-mates which in turn led to Bluewings players standing up for their supporter in numbers. The following minutes were chaos as an all-in brawl erupted, with the referee losing all control as players, substitutes, coaches and officials fought.

Somehow, eventually the melee ended, with the referee handing out two red cards to Suwon’s Stevica Ristic and Al Sadd’s Kader Keita.

There’s plenty of questions to be asked about the whole event. Firstly, there is some debate about whether Suwon had a right to receive the ball back, with some observers claiming the Koreans hadn’t intentionally kicked the ball out of bounds. Bluewings did play on for some time while the pair were down, although eventually skipper Yeom Ki-Hun did appear to allow the ball to run out.

Nevertheless, why didn’t the referee stop play, considering the fact that Choi had suffered a nasty head injury and it had occurred inside the box, with the game continuing around him? If the match official had taken control and halted play – which should be done with head injuries – it would’ve cleared up the whole issue before it escalated.

Then again that cannot excuse what Niang did. The former Fenerbahce and Marseille striker’s goal was within the rules, however it was clearly against the spirit of fair play. Even Niang’s coach Fossati couldn’t defend the goal and admitted his striker had “lost his mind”. Yoon labelled it “ungentlemanly”, while Al Sadd’s Korean defender Lee Jung-Soo fought with his team-mates on the pitch about giving a goal back before walking off the field of play furious at the situation he labelled “unfair”.

Indeed, given Fossati’s admission he couldn’t defend Niang’s decision to score the goal, there is the question over whether Al Sadd should hand Suwon an away goal in the second leg to square the ledger.

The AFC has some big decisions to make and they’ll need to be made fast with the second leg scheduled to be played next Wednesday. The clubs and players simply cannot get away with such an incident and some heavy penalties will need to be imposed.

Suwon, too, can expect some repercussions for the lax security which allowed a fan to not only jump onto the running track around the ground, but get on the field of play and attack an opposition player. To his credit, Yoon admitted Suwon were to blame for this, however the AFC will need to make a statement here.

It’s an unfortunate state of affairs for Asian football, particularly when we should be discussing who will reach the Champions League final. The AFC must act strongly to ensure an incident like this doesn’t happen again on such a grand stage.