Football Association of Malaysia fined over discriminatory chants
FAM has been hit with a US$30,000 after being found responsible for six different charges from five games at the South East Asian Games.
Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) was fined US$30,000 (25,700 euros) on Tuesday after fans’ discriminatory chants against Singapore and Brunei during matches at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysian supporters chanted “Brunei dogs should just be killed” during their side’s 2-1 victory over their neighbors on August 14.
Two days later, they chanted against the Singaporeans, repeatedly calling them “dogs” in a 2-1 victory for the hosts.
For each of these two offences, the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) disciplinary committee fined FAM US$15,000.
Further punishments for FAM
AFC’s Disciplinary and Ethics Committee has also found Malaysian FA, head coach and players guilty of several offences.
Malaysia captain Safiq Rahim was fined US$1,000 (850 euros) for a rash tackle he made during an AFC Cup qualification match against Hong Kong on October 10 at the Hong Kong Stadium.
Head coach Nelo Vingada will need to pay a US$5,000 (4,200 euro) fine for making insulting comments about the referee team after the match between Malaysia and Hong Kong.
Aside from the SEA Games chants, FAM was also found responsible for the team’s conduct against referees near the end of AFC Cup qualifier against Hong Kong. For this, the Association will pay US$6,000 (5,100 euros).
Also, Malaysian fans throwing projectiles at the match officials after the same match resulted in a US$7,500 (6,400 euro) fine for FAM.
Hong Kong warned
AFC also warned Hong Kong Football Association for their fans’ behavior at the above mentioned controversial match against Malaysia.
A group of Hong Kong fans booed the Chinese national anthem, the “March of the Volunteers” (played during Hong Kong international matches).
It is not the first time that similar events have occurred, with football venues becoming a recurrent site for voicing discontent over the Chinese ruling in the former British colony.
In September, Chinese government passed a law stating that insults against the anthem could result in 15 days imprisonment. However, this law is yet to be extended to Hong Kong.