Violence on field not good for UAE football

Police officials intervene as Ajman Club officials charge towards the referees after the match against Al Ahli on December 26, 2013, during an Arabian Gulf League match. — Courtesy Al Bayan

A number of Arabian Gulf League ties this year have witnessed chaos, objections to referees’ decisions, and scuffle among players. Such incidents have never been witnessed before in the UAE. It recently took a nasty turn when a club official, angered by a referee decision, assaulted the match official after a match. The incident sparked anger among fans who voiced their opinion on social networking sites.

Relations between clubs have also been marred due to differences and disputes. Local Arabic Press has devoted wide coverage on the recent incident. Sports channels have also reviewed and discussed the problem, and it went beyond borders as a Spanish daily described the equaliser scored by Al Wahda club’s Tegali in the encounter against Dubai club in AGCC League as the worst goal of 2013. The Daily Mail website termed the physical attack by Ajman official Abdullah Ahmed Ali on international referee Hamad Al Shaikh as one of the worst incidents in football.

Journalists suggested that the reason behind the massive media coverage is due to the fact that sports fans in the UAE are not familiar with such ugly practices. They say ugly incidents have increased in the last four months and the recent action of the official who punched the referee is the first case of its kind in the UAE’s top league.

Some other matters have also drawn furious reactions from soccer fans. Some of the decisions taken by the legal committee have been termed controversial. The case of Cosmin Olaroiu whose contract was valid with Al Ain until he suddenly switched to Al Ahli was a curious one. Al Ain accused Cosmin of violating the terms and conditions of the contract, and demanded him to pay €500,000. Cosmin reacted to the decision underestimating his former club. The latter’s management was upset, and they have decided to take legal action against him, while the disciplinary committee was still investigating the matter.

Refereeing errors are also on the rise, and media have focused on this aspect to the frustration of the panel of referees, which blamed the media, especially Abu Dhabi and Dubai Sports TV channels for showing them in bad light. Some pointed out that the abusive language and obscene gestures made by players against referees have also soured the relationship between players and referees, and it ended up with a club official punching a referee on the face. The case was the first of its kind in the UAE football, and the disciplinary panel took strong action against the Ajman club official. Some days later a fan did the same mistake when he behaved irresponsibly. Such sort of behaviour is completely unacceptable. Match referees makes mistakes in every country where football is played. Haven’t we seen big mistakes even in the World Cups – the greatest of all football tournaments? But you just can’t go on and assault them just because they have made a mistake on the field.

Another accident took place in Al Aweer when Al Wahda player Sebastian Tegali scored in an unethical way. A Dubai player kicked the ball out of play so that their injured goalkeeper could be treated. When the referee ordered play to resume, Hamdan Al Kamali passed the ball to his teammate Sebastian. And instead of giving it easily to the goalkeeper, he scored a goal as the spectators and even the players on the field were stunned by the lack of sportsman spirit from the Al Wahda player.

People blasted the behavior of Kamali on Twitter and some even said he had no right to be a sportsman. They expressed resentment and posted harsh and strong words against such unethical behavior.

There were other ugly incidents as well. In one of the Pro League ties, Al Kamali of Al Wahda used abusive language against Dioub of Al Dhafra, while Yasser Mattar of Al Jazeera attacked a player of Al Wahda. Ismail Ahmed of Al Ain was involved in scuffle with Ze Carlos of Sharjah while they were on their way to the dressing room at the half time. Also, Al Jazira coach harassed his Al Nasr counterpart during their encounter.

The football association’s committees failed to strictly deal with these incidents and because of that the sport’s image in the country has suffered.

International football referee Hamad Al Shaikh, who was punched by Ajman official Abdullah Ahmed, said that he suffered painful and sad moments. He said he awarded Al Ahli a last minute penalty kick for an offense he believed the Ajman footballer had committed, and gave the final whistle seconds later. He said he did not expect that a sportsman could ever do such an act.

Meanwhile, Umran Mohammad, a leading sports writer and director of Abu Dhabi Sport TV Programmes, criticises those who point an accusing finger at the role of media. Umran explained that the sports events go on air live, and viewers and clubs’ followers watch them. “And, as a nature of the work of media persons, they convey the image, and I think that criticising and slamming the media is illogical,” he said.

“Newspapers and sports TV channels discuss the League matches without bias, but the mistakes committed by referees are many and they are not willing to neither discuss these mistakes nor be criticised.”

Umran also referred to the rules to be followed by professional players. He said the disputes, mistakes and criticisms could also be seen in world football, and even at the World Cup, and they must be dealt with in a proper way.

malzarooni@khaleejtimes.com