Popovic, Lippi get bans over stormy ACL tie
Print Edition
FORMER Guangzhou Evergrande coach Marcello Lippi and Western Sydney Wanderers skipper Tony Popovic were both handed match bans yesterday stemming from their roles in a stormy Asian Champions League match in August.
Lippi, the former coach of Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning side, was given a four-match ban from club competition by the Asian Football Confederation, while Popovic will be barred from the touchline for two games.
Lippi had stormed the pitch during a knockout phase match against the Sydney side, angered by late red cards for two of his players.
The Australian squad went on to win the ACL crown.
Lippi has since stepped aside as coach, after guiding Guangzhou to its fourth consecutive Chinese title in November, and now serves as football director. He has been replaced as coach by Italy 2006 captain Fabio Cannavaro.
Lippi has already served one of the four games. He also was fined US$5,000, while Popovic was fined US$2,000.
Lippi’s assistant Massimiliano Maddalon and Guangzhou physiotherapist Silvano Cotti were banned for two games and also fined US$2,000.
Also, freshly crowned Asian footballer of the year Nassir al-Shamrani was handed an eight-match ban for spitting at an opponent during the second leg of last month’s ACL final.
Al-Shamrani was at the center of a mass shoving match in al-Hilal’s contentious 0-1 loss to the Wanderers on November 1 following the final in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Video footage had showed al-Shamrani spitting at Wanderers defender Matthew Spiranovic after the Australians’ win, prompting the confrontation between the two teams.
The AFC said yesterday the ban would be served in future club competition, warning that transgressions would be dealt with more severely.
Al-Shamrani beat out competition from al-Ain’s Ismail Ahmed and Qatar’s Khalfan Ibrahim to take Asian football’s top personal accolade at an AFC awards ceremony on December 1 in Manila, Philippines.
Al-Hilal had several penalty appeals waved away over the course of the two ACL legs.
The club later called the second leg “a black spot in the history of Asian football”.
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