AFC blast beaten Myanmar for poor sportsmanship

AFC blast beaten Myanmar for poor sportsmanship

January 4, 2005 (Reuters-AP) - The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) criticised Myanmar yesterday after four of their players were sent off in an explosive Tiger Cup semi-final at the weekend.

Singapore beat Myanmar 4-2 on Sunday to win the two-leg tie 8-5 on aggregate after the visitors finished a fiery match with eight players and had their reserve goalkeeper sent off.

The AFC were “disappointed with the poor sportsmanship and the lack of fair play demonstrated in the Singapore-Myanmar match” played in the city-state on Sunday, said AFC secretary-general Datuk Peter Velappan.

“We are extremely displeased with the attitude of the players as well as the Myanmar officials,” he said.

Myanmar, trailing 4-3 after the first leg, looked like producing a big upset when they took a 2-0 lead but the away side self-destructed after a 74th-minute own goal from Zaw Lynn Tun.

Yan Piang had been sent off for a second bookable offence three minutes earlier and Lynn Tun was shown the red card for a nasty lunge at Singapore’s Indra Sahdan Daud in the 90th minute.

Lynn Tun’s foul resulted in a penalty and Moe Kyaw Thu promptly became the third player sent off for kicking mud at Japanese referee Toru Kamikawa in protest at the decision.

Singapore missed the penalty that should have seen them through but three goals in extra time against Myanmar’s eight men sealed victory.

To compound Myanmar’s shame, substitute goalkeeper Tun Tun Lin was dismissed from the bench after hurling a water bottle at a Singapore player during extra time.

The match was marked by a minute’s silence before kick-off as a mark of respect for the victims of the Asian tsunami that killed more than 150,000.

Myanmar was one of the countries affected by the huge waves that swept across the Indian Ocean on Dec 26.

The AFC also asked the Asean Football Federation (AFF) to submit an overall report on the Tiger Cup after being informed of poor security conditions at a Dec 28 match in Jakarta between Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as match-fixing allegations during group matches in Vietnam.

“We urge you to conduct an investigation into these allegations immediately,” Velappan said in a letter to the AFF.

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