KUALA LUMPUR: Asian Champions League winner Guangzhou Evergrande has been fined for secretly filming its opponent’s training session before the second-leg match of the final.
Evergrande must pay $160,000 for several rules violations around the return match in China against Al Ahli of United Arab Emirates last November, the Asian Football Confederation said on Wednesday.
The fine was announced on the same day Evergrande agreed to pay $45.8 million (42 million euros) to sign Colombia forward Jackson Martinez from Atletico Madrid.
Evergrande must also play its first group-stage match in this year’s competition in an empty stadium. The Chinese Football Association was also fined $10,000 by the AFC.
The governing body said $10,000 of the club’s fine is for “bad conduct (filming the `closed’ official training of the away team)” by an Evergrande staffer the day before winning the second leg.
Evergrande, coached by Luiz Felipe Scolari, won 1-0 to take the title by the same aggregate score. There was no suggestion that Scolari was involved in the illicit filming.
A total of $100,000 of the fine was imposed for “conducting an unauthorized post-match ceremony, infringing upon the commercial rights of AFC sponsors,” the AFC said. (AP)
