Three football players and two coaches from South Korea’s Suwon Samsung Bluewings and Qatar’s Al Sadd have been suspended for their up-coming match at the top continental club competition for their roles in an in-game brawl this week, Asia’s top football organization announced Saturday.
The Asian Football Confederation said on its website that it has suspended forward Stevica Ristic and trainer Ko Jong-su of K-League’s Suwon, and Al Sadd forwards Abdulkader Keita and Mamadou Niang, and goalkeeper coach Suhail Saber Ali.
The two teams are set to meet in the second leg of their semifinal of the AFC Champions League on Wednesday in Doha. Al Sadd beat Suwon 2-0 in the first leg, which was played in Suwon, just south of Seoul, last Wednesday.
Ristic and Keita were thrown out of that game for their role in a melee that followed a controversial goal by Niang.
In the 80th minute, Suwon’s Choi Sung-hwan went down with an apparent head injury and teammate Yeom Ki-hun deliberately put the ball out of play for treatment.
Then Keita threw in the ball to Niang, who went on to score to make it 2-0. The play stunned Suwon defenders who apparently expected to have the ball back.
In football, when an injured player’s team puts the ball out of play for medical attention, the opposing team normally waits before sending the ball back to the other team.
During the melee, a South Korean fan jumped in from the stands and argued with Al Sadd’s goalkeeper Mohamed Saqr Ahmed.
Keita then arrived at the scene and slapped the fan in the back of his head before grabbing the fan by the throat.
Ristic and Keita, based on their ejection, were ineligible for the second leg anyway. Niang got his second yellow of the day, and thus an automatic ejection, late in the match for an unrelated violation.
