The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced in Kuala Lumpur
yesterday that it would reduce Shandong Luneng midfielder Zheng
Zhi's six-month suspension to just three games at the Asian
Champions League. The decision was made after the AFC heard the
China Super League club's appeal on behalf of their star player.
Zheng was suspended after an incident where he spat at a match
official during an Asian Champions League quarterfinal match with
Al Ittihad in September.
On Monday afternoon,?Luneng decided to slap a fine of
70,000 yuan (US$8,665) on Zheng.
"In the beginning, my expectations of the appeal weren't very
high. But I'm grateful to the club for what they have done for me.
I'm thankful to so many people, especially Dong Gang, who has just
left his post of general manager," Zheng said.
The main reason for the AFC's decision was that they had, in
September, instituted a disciplinary regulation stipulating that
the punished side has the right to be notified and to appeal before
concrete punishment measures are made. According to Dong Gang,
former general manager of Luneng, who was quoted in Titan
Sports yesterday, the club didn't receive the notice before
the punishment was meted out.?
"Our success in the appeal can be attributed to the loophole in
their (AFC) working procedure and I don't think this same loophole
can be used again," Dong added.
Since 1985, five Chinese soccer players have been banned by the
AFC for serious violations of discipline, and the Zheng case is the
first where an appeal to the AFC has been successful.
The revised three-game suspension has little impact
on?Luneng because they failed to qualify for the 2006 ACL
after losing the China FA Cup final to Dalian last month. In any
case, Zheng, their 25-year-old star, will be able to play for his
club from the beginning of the 2006 China Super League season.
It's the national team that will be affected by Zheng's
suspension. "The national team is in an even worse position because
Zheng will not be able to play the first three rounds in next
year's Asian Cup qualification," Zhu Guanghu, head coach of China's
national team, said.
Commenting on the reduction of the suspension, Zheng's agent
Wang Bensen said that either way, it's not great news. Zheng's plan
of playing abroad has now become more difficult. Zheng was
scheduled to try out for the German League A this winter.
Besides Zheng, Luneng's coach Ljubisa Tumbakovic and player
Predrag Padzin, who were banned six months and 18 months
respectively, also had their punishments reduced to six and 12
matches respectively.
(China.org.cn by Li Xiao, December 6, 2005)
