PATTAYA, Thailand, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Thailand have
escaped disciplinary action following their walkoff protest in the
first leg of last week's ASEAN championship final against
Singapore, the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) said on
Wednesday.
The AFF have reprimanded the Thais, however, after the entire team
stormed off the pitch to protest a dubious late penalty. The
furious Thais sat on the sidelines for 15 minutes before eventually
returning to the field, only for Singapore to convert the spot kick
to take a 2-1 aggregate lead.
Singapore secured a 1-1 draw in Sunday's highly charged return leg
to win 3-2 on aggregate and take their third ASEAN championship
title. "There was a lengthy deliberation on the facts of the case
and the Committee decided that there was evidence of dissent on the
part of the Thailand team and this resulted in the delay of the
restart of the match," the AFF said in a statement.
"Having regard to the facts produced at the inquiry, we are of the
opinion that reprimand would be fitting punishment in the
circumstances." Worawi Makudi, secretary-general of Thailand's
soccer association (FAT), said Thailand respected the AFF's
decision. "The tournament is our tournament, as part of the ASEAN
family, and we want to make it better and to be without any
problems," Worawi told Reuters.
The penalty incident caused outrage in soccer-mad Thailand,
prompting thousands of Singaporeans to cancel plans to attend the
return leg for fear of reprisals. Thai newspapers had launched
scathing attacks on the Singapore team, dubbing them "cheats" and
"robbers".
The incident came amid growing bad blood between the two countries
following last year's $3.8 billion takeover by Singapore's Temasek
of telecoms giant Shin Corp, which belonged to the family of ousted
Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thailand's coup-installed government recently suspended a nine-year
exchange programme with the city state and tore up an invitation to
its foreign minister after Thaksin was the guest of a Singapore
cabinet minister.
