CHINA - Shandong Luneng, quarter-finalists in the AFC Champions League, have been left devastated by the Asian Football Confederation's (AFC) decision to slap hefty bans on their coach and two players for their behaviour in a continental game at the end of September.
Ljubisa Tumbakovic, the club's Serbian coach, Pedrag Pazin, a defender from Bulgaria, and Zheng Zhi, a China national team midfielder, have all been banned from competitive football throughout Asia for between nine and 18 months for some unseemly displays at the end of their quarter-final clash in Saudi Arabia with eventual winners Al Ittihad.
The AFC is also to ask FIFA to extend the ban to all football throughout the world, something the AFC are confident will happen given how seriously the authorities view abuse of officials.
Pazin and Zheng were both sent off in the last minute of the game after Tumbakovic was ordered from the dug-out minutes earlier when Shandong, already trailing 5-2 on the night, conceded a dubious penalty. The Serbian manhandled the assistant referee and was duly given his marching orders.
As the game neared its end, Zhi was pulled up for a foul by Mohsen Ghahremani, of Iran, and made his feelings clear to the official and spat at him, although the player has denied doing such a thing.
"I came up to the referee to show my discontent but I didn't spit at him," the player said on hearing the news of his ban.
"I would not have even dared to come up with such an impulse, so how could I have managed to spit?" remonstrated the China national team player and 2002 Chinese player of the year, who was preparing with the national team ahead of the game against Serbia on Sunday.
Pazin followed Zheng for an early bath moments later when he in turn let the referee know what he thought of the sending off, and spat at the official before being shown the red card.
The AFC's Disciplinary Commitee, meeting in Kuala Lumpur, has handed Tumbakovic a six-month ban from holding any official position at any clubs at international or domestic level and fined $4,500. Zheng has received the same punishement, while Pazin has been hit hardest, with an 18-month ban and fine of $4,500.
The bans come into effect immediately and the club and players have 15 days in which to lodge an appeal.
Shandong have yet to announce who will take over from the coach or whether they intend to appeal.
