JEDDAH: The severe action meted out by the disciplinary committee came in for harsh criticism by all. The committee decided to teach both teams a lesson when fans at the stadium started throwing objects against each other in round five of the Saudi Professional League.
As part of their stern action, Al Hilal and Al Ahli were compelled to play their home matches outside their cities in addition to paying a fine of SR 20,000 each.
Ahli played their home against Najran in Najran instead of Jeddah while Hilal played against Al-Fateh in Ahsa instead of Riyadh. Officials at both clubs believe that the decision was very harsh and did great injustice to their team. According to them, Najran and Al Fateh benefited from it.
The administrators at Hilal and Ahli believe that the event happened between fans but clubs had nothing to do with it. Hilal club president, Prince Abdullah bin Musaed, said that the article stated that the game would be played outside the city club, but not in the opponent city. It could have been easily played outside Riyadh in Hail or Madinah.
Abdul Rahman Al-Namr, former deputy president of Hilal club, said, “The decision damaged Hilal club a lot and served Al-Fateh. I think we should benefit from the European league. They have fans rioting more than us and when the team is reprimanded, the game is not played in the rival city but at a neutral venue.
It is sad that Hilal had to pay the price for such events when the real people to be blamed are the police who failed to maintain order at the stadium. If security was tight in the first place, then fans would not be throwing objects at each other. I cannot understand objects that are banned in the stadium managed to get inside?”
Former Ahli club president, Ahmad Al-Marzooki, said that the host of the game should be dealt with because his team is responsible for organizing hosting the game and not the visiting team. He said, “Fans rioting is not new in Saudi football.
We are not facing a new problem because it happens every time and it needs severe action to be taken to put an end to it. Playing away from home in my opinion is just because clubs should increase awareness between their fans not to start a riot during or after the match.”
Abdullah Al-Naser, deputy president of the disciplinary committee at the Saudi football federation, said that the action taken during the season will be reviewed after the end of the football season and then the required changes will be made. He said, “We wanted stern action to be taken because we want to put an end to this grave problem. I think each country has its own rules and regulations and we have the freedom to choose what suits us the best.”
For example, the action taken against rioting is one whether the rioting was small or big. Any complaint will be taken into consideration at the end of the football season.”
