JEDDAH, 23 May 2007 — The Arab Basketball Federation’s Technical Committee penalized Al-Ahli for failing to control their unruly fans during the tumultuous final against Al-Riadi of Lebanon on Monday in the ART-sponsored 20th Arab Basketball Federation Championship here.
The committee suspended Ahli for two years from playing in the Arab Basketball Championship starting from the date of the final on May 21 and fined $5,000.
The sanctions against Ahli were announced yesterday. A parallel action is still to be decided by the Saudi Basketball Federation whose president Prince Talal ibn Badr was deeply embarrassed by the Ahli fans’ behavior. Also, Saudi Arabia is not to host events organized by the ABF for a period of one year.
Riadi won the game by forfeiture and were awarded the championship trophy.
The game was stopped with still seven minutes left to play and Riadi ahead by 90-68, as the Ahli fans misbehaved throwing objects and water bottles onto the court. They also started shouting and cursing leaving the indoor hall of Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium in chaos.
This ugly incident took place despite the presence of Prince Talal.
The general secretary of the SBF, Abdulrahman Al-Musaad, was disappointed with what happened and said the Saudi body is considering action to be taken against Ahli.
Al-Musaad told Arab News it was unexpected from the Ahli team to commit such an act even if they were losing. “The Lebanese team were leading and they earned the victory because of their fine performance and developed skills,” he said. He added the Ahli punishment is necessary and that this serves as a lesson to whoever will repeat such kind of behavior in future.
“We do not want this to happen again or reflect on the local competitions in the future.
“What the fans had done was totally unacceptable,” he said.
