Hooliganism in football isn’t a new concept, what with all those infamous stories of players resorting to taking matters into their own hands all around the globe. But we rarely expect it to happen in our own backyard, among a society so used to non-confrontation.
As it turns out, our football scene isn’t immune from that, as a scuffle ensued between players over a call made by the referee during a Home United vs Hougang United match in Jalan Besar Stadium yesterday. The game, which ended in a 1-1 draw, saw the teams competing in the second round of The New Paper League Cup.
Ironically for the title sponsors of this season’s League Cup, news of the brawl didn’t seem to make it to The New Paper‘s website as of today.
If you’ve any doubt as to what happened, watch this video posted by former SPH journalist Suresh Nair.
And here’s how the sequence of events unfolded, according to Suresh:
- The brawl happened deep into the match, as eyewitnesses said Afiq Yunos of Home United (shirt no. 3) was reprimanded for a reckless challenge. He showed dissent towards match officials and was subsequently red-carded.
- Yunos continued to protest and refused to leave the pitch, and eyewitnesses said he pushed the referee and had to be escorted off the field by security personnel.
- Khairul Nizam of Home United (shirt no. 12), who was in the technical area, later verbally abused the referee with swear words.
- The red card was then shown to Nizam, who tried to confront the referee.
- Yunos continued to abuse match officials as they walked past the tunnel. He allegedly said the “men-in-black (match officials)” held personal grudges against him.
Here are the official match tallies:
EDIT: We previously noted that the dispute itself resulted in all the yellow and red cards for the two teams. Clearly an error on our part, so we’ve removed it. Apologies!
