By Jose Raymond, TODAY Posted: 06 September 2007 0713 hrs
Woodlands players troop off the field in protest
It was a flashback to the disgraceful scenes during the ASEAN Football Championship Final between Singapore and Thailand earlier this year.
Woodlands players troop off the field in protestIt was a flashback to the disgraceful scenes during the ASEAN Football Championship Final between Singapore and Thailand earlier this year.
Woodlands Wellington stained the image of the NTUC Income-Yeo's S.League when its players walked out en masse against Tampines Rovers on Wednesday.
The walkout, which has been described as an "absolute disgrace", was the first by a club in the history of the 12-year-old league.
Angered by several decisions made by referee P Pandian, Woodlands players marched off the pitch after title contenders Tampines went 2-0 up on the hour mark.
Football Association of Singapore competitions chief Quah Kim Song has promised action will be taken against the Rams.
He said: "We will wait for the reports of the match officials and match commissioner and after that, we will refer them to a disciplinary hearing."
While Tampines will almost certainly be awarded the three points for a win, Quah said the final decision on the result would be announced on Thursday.
The drama began in the 58th minute when Pandian sent off Woodlands midfielder Hasrin Jailani for elbowing Tampines' Mustafic Fahrudin.
Incensed by the decision, Azlan Alipah sent the Stags' midfield ace Peres de Oliveira sprawling to the ground with a cynical tackle moments later and Shariff Samat tucked away the subsequent free-kick to send the visitors' into the lead.
After the restart, Woodlands skipper Jerry Barthomoleusz headed for the bench to take instructions from coach Jorg Steinnebrunner.
The Woodlands players then stood still as Tampines began another raid up the field, which led to Noh Alam Shah doubling the Stags' lead.
The Woodlands players' then trooped off the pitch and into the dressing room, leaving the Tampines players, fans and match officials stunned.
The home fans then began abusing the referee and water bottles rained down from the stands.
The police arrived moments later.
As the stadium announcer told fans to calm down due to a "technical difficulty", cheers were heard emerging from the Woodlands dressing room and then, club chairman Francis Gomez emerged after speaking to the players.
When queried about the walkout, club manager Lawrence Lau would only say: "This is beyond my control."
Gomez was later heard exchanging words with Quah as he left the dressing room area.
The team emerged from the dressing room half an hour after the game was abandoned by the referee and Steinnebrunner said: "We will talk about this on another day. You saw what happened and there is nothing I want to say."
In the first leg of the ASEAN final on Jan 31, the Thai players walked off the pitch after Malaysian referee C Ravichandran awarded Singapore a penalty with the scores tied at 1-1.
After a 15-minute standoff, the players eventually returned to the field and Mustafic fired home the penalty.
Singapore went on to win the match 2-1 and lifted the ASEAN title after the Lions drew the return leg in Bangkok 1-1.
Tampines Rovers coach Vorawan Chitavanich was stunned at the behaviour of the Woodlands players.
"I have been here for eight years and this is the first time I am seeing something like this happen at club level," said the former Thai international.
"I spoke to their coach just a little while ago and he said that they acted on the instructions of their club chairman."
"It could be bad for us because even though the result will be awarded to us, we could suffer if the championship goes to goal difference.
"We could have scored a few more goals in the match, for sure. This is just a sad day for Singapore football."
- TODAY/so
No comments:
Post a Comment