Al-Amin banned for 15 matches for brawl in Maldives
FIFA has banned Bangladeshi footballer Al-Amin for 15 matches for brawling in the Four-Nation Football Tournament, which was held in the Maldives last June.
However, the striker, who played two matches playing for Bangladesh Football team in that competition, has the opportunity to appeal against this punishment.
As of the writing of this report, the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) has not officially announced anything about the ban.
However, a BFF source told to a local website that the federation received a letter of 15-match ban a few days ago from FIFA, the highest governing body of world football.
The Bangladesh Football team usually do not play more than seven to eight matches a year.
As a result, the 15-match ban will prevent Al-Amin from playing in national or international matches for about two years.
This is the biggest ban for a Bangladeshi footballer in recent times. Earlier, the then captain of the Bangladesh team, Elias Hossain, was banned for one year for insulting a referee at the SAFF Games held in Pakistan in 1989.
The Maldives organised the ‘Diamond Jubilee Football Tournament’ to mark the 75th anniversary of Maldivian football.
It was a life-or-death match for the Bangladesh Olympic team against the host Maldives on June 7.
That match seemed to turn into a battlefield. Tensions began surrounding the referee’s controversial decisions, which later escalated into scuffles and fights.
The situation reached such a point that Bangladesh’s Al-Amin and Mirajul Islam saw red cards. The heat on the field also spread to the gallery.
The incident began in added time. Maldives’ Naiz Hassan fell to the ground in a clash with Bangladesh’s Piash Ahmed Nova in a fight for possession of the ball.
Bangladesh players were furious when referee Sekaran Senthilnathan immediately awarded a free kick to Maldives.
Mirajul Islam was first shown a red card for protesting from the side bench. Then forward Al-Amin was shown a red card for strongly opposing the referee’s decision inside the field.
Unable to control his temper after seeing the card, he pushed the referee.
The situation on the field was extremely tense even after the game was stopped due to chaos.
Tension also spread among the Bangladeshi fans in the gallery after seeing this situation on the field.
Finally, the situation was brought under control with the intervention of the coaching staff and officials of both teams. In the end, both teams left the field with a 1-1 draw.
