Rubbish barrage 'not like us at all'

The Asian Football Confederation is expected to weigh a referee's report before deciding on any punitive action following Saturday's game

ABU DHABI // Football officials yesterday urged supporters of the national team to redeem themselves after Saturday's match and support their country properly. The UAE play Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, four days after supporters threw a barrage of plastic bottles at opposition players and officials when their side suffered a surprising home defeat to North Korea.

Talal al Hashemi, a football officer with the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, who was at the game, said: "I have seen this many times before on television, but never here in the UAE. "We hope this does not happen again - it is not like us at all. People had come to the game, they were hot, and they were angry - they were hoping for a good result. "But we have to support our players, not do this. We have a chance still [to qualify], but we need our players to concentrate."

One fan, Jason Thompson, wrote a letter about the incident to The National which said: "I have never before been more embarrassed or ashamed at a sporting event than I was while watching legions of fans' utter disrespect as they rained down a barrage of water bottles and juice boxes on to the pitch, in many cases hitting players or the near-side referee. "Unfortunately, it wasn't the team doing the attacking during the game but the fans."

In the 80th minute, as An Chol-Hyok scored the North Koreans' second goal, play was almost immediately interrupted by a hail of missiles from two of the home stands. Several full plastic cartons of water and orange juice were thrown at oppositions players, particularly goalkeeper Ri Myong-guk. The barrage continued for five minutes and grew in intensity, leaving the pitch littered with several dozen plastic containers that remained on the pitch until the end of the game.

At one point, plastic bottles were thrown in the direction of the assistant referee, who went on to the pitch and pleaded with the referee to intervene. He was not injured. Calm was eventually restored after a number of UAE and North Korea players appealed to the home stands to stop throwing bottles. Minutes later, however, a North Korean player receiving medical treatment on the pitch was struck by another missile. Police also spoke to members of the crowd, asking them to stop throwing objects.

The official match report of the Asian Football Confederation, the body running the regional competitions, said: "Play was held up for five minutes as missiles rained on to the pitch but when the match resumed, the hosts pulled a goal back." Match officials added nine minutes of injury time to the end of the match. When the final whistle blew another barrage of plastic bottles was thrown by the crowd.

Lying prostrate to celebrate his side's victory, the North Korean goalkeeper again became the target for more projectiles. Another fan, Ahmed Hamadi, said: "Everybody was very angry, because they felt that the coach [Bruno Metsu] had players there who were not ready. "It is not correct that people do this, but some people have come a long way, from Dubai or Sharjah, to see their country play. They get angry and upset."

Neither Fifa, football's world governing body, nor the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) was available for comment yesterday on whether there would be a further investigation into the Abu Dhabi incident. The AFC is expected to wait until they see the match referee's report and discover whether it includes details of the crowd trouble before deciding whether to take further action. Teams whose fans misbehave are usually dealt with more harshly in Europe than in Asia. Last December, Anderlecht, the Belgian club, were fined £13,000 (Dh84,000) for an incident similar to Saturday's UAE game when they met the English side Tottenham Hotspur.

In December next year, the world's best teams will play against each other in the World Club Championship in Abu Dhabi. Some games are expected to be held at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium. [e-mail]