Disgraceful And Shameful

I think those who are interested in Asian football would have had their eyes fixed on last night's ASEAN Football Championship Finals 1st leg that was held over here in Singapore.

Although Singapore now took the lead with a 2-1 score but it has been marred with a major controversy.

Are players supposed to walk off the pitch in protest if they cannot agree with the referee's decision?

We have been here again and again, banging on this topic over and over again for the past how many years about how football should have implemented technologies to aid the referees due to the number of wrong calls made in matches. Some of them are small, but like last night, it was a major turning point of the match and it could very well be the winning goal (wishful thinking, of course).

But then again, the implementation of technology is so painfully slow. So now, let's move on with things and accept that the referee is the judge of the game and will always have the final say.

Anyway, the incident happened was Singapore striker, Noh Alam Shah, was adjudged to have been brought down by a Thai defender. Referee pointed to the spot and the Thai players were livid. Replays shows minimal contact between the duo but it is not conclusive enough.

What happened next is disgraceful. Something that is not supposed to be on a football pitch.

The Thai players walked off the pitch in protest and it took them a good 15 minutes before they walked back and face the music.

Where's the sportsmanship? Where's the spirit of a footballer, no, someone who plays sports.

In the Premiership, we have referees like Uriah Rennie and Graham Poll. They have time and again proved to be pretty incompetent referees with strange calls and wrong decisions. But other than players showing dissent, have you seen the whole team of players walking off the pitch throwing tantrums?

If that happens, wow, they'll get fined by every 'fa' ie. FIFA, UEFA and just to name a few.

What happened last night was uncalled for and an utter shame. It should never happen on a football pitch especially in a final in front of 50,000 fans. It has set the game of football in Asia back by a good 10-20 years.

Shame on you.