LONDON: Players in the UAE’s Arabian Gulf League might start thinking twice about splashing the cash on fancy hairdos after Al Ain’s Brazilian player Caio was the latest player to be fined for sporting an "unethical haircut" during a recent game.
The Brazilian midfielder, who joined the UAE side in 2016, was fined AED1,000 ($272) by the UAE FA’s disciplinary committee for the haircut.
It comes just a week after the federation punished Moroccan Murad Batna of Al Wahda with a similar fine for exactly the same offense.
And the duo are not the first players to fall foul of the AGL’s strict rules on haircuts.
The highest profile case involved Ghana’s former Sunderland forward Asamoah Gyan who was also found guilty of having “unethical hair” under UAE FA guidelines last year.
The 31-year-old Ghanian was one of 46 players found to have breached the rules on inappropriate hairstyles in a league where referees are responsible for deciding whether a player’s hairstyle is in keeping with the “country’s cultural norms.”
Middle East football expert Shuaib Ahmed told Arab News: “These type of cuts with the side of the head shaved are not aligned with the country’s cultural norms. It came up last season and since then, the league committee have started taking it seriously.”
It happens in other Middle East countries too, such as Saudi Arabia. Back in 2012, Waleed Abdullah was told to cut his “un-Islamic” hair by the referee before being allowed on the pitch to play for his side Al Shabab.
Al-Ain’s Caio becomes latest UAE league player to receive fine for ‘unethical haircut’
Al-Ain’s Caio becomes latest UAE league player to receive fine for ‘unethical haircut’
Four share lead after first round of Aramco LIV Golf Singapore
- Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Lee Westwood and Richard T. Lee all posted rounds of 4-under 67
- Rahm is coming off a great week in Hong Kong as the two-time reigning LIV Golf Individual Champion won his first tournament since 2024
SINGAPORE: Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau routinely find themselves at the top of the LIV Golf leaderboard. Lee Westwood and Richard T. Lee, meanwhile, finished Thursday’s opening round at Aramco LIV Golf Singapore breaking new ground.
Rahm, DeChambeau, Westwood and Lee each posted a 4-under 67 to share the first-round lead on a demanding day at Sentosa’s Serapong course. They lead by one stroke over a group of seven players, with 10 other players another shot back.
For Rahm, winner of last week’s HSBC LIV Golf Hong Kong, this is the 14th time in his league career that the Legion XIII captain has owned at least a share of the lead after any round.
For Crushers GC captain DeChambeau, who has played two more seasons than Rahm, this is also his 14th time as a leader or co-leader. Last month, the two shared the lead entering the final round in Adelaide before Anthony Kim surged past them for the win.
While Westwood certainly has plenty of experience atop leaderboards, having won 44 times in his storied career, this is the first time he has held a share of the lead as an original LIV Golf member. He said it was a bit unexpected considering he just returned last week from a torn tendon in his left wrist, finishing T18 in Hong Kong in his first tournament start in six months. At age 52 — he turns 53 next month – he becomes the oldest LIV Golf player to claim a share of the lead.
“Seven weeks ago, I couldn’t hold the putter,” said the Majesticks Golf Club co-captain after his bogey-free round. “The specialist was worried that I’d torn the sheath in the wrist and I would need surgery to reconstruct it. To be sitting here, having a good week last week and then be leading this week is a very pleasant surprise.”
Lee spent much of LIV Golf Promotions in January atop the leaderboard, eventually winning in a dominant performance on the final 36-hole qualifier to earn his way into the league as an independent wildcard player. Now, in just his fourth start as an LIV Golf player, he becomes the first wildcard player to lead after any round, his 67 kick-started by a birdie on his opening hole when he holed out of a bunker.
Lee, the first Canadian player in league history, is determined to end the week setting another new standard. No wildcard player has yet finished inside the top 10 in any tournament.
“That could possibly change this week,” he said. “I’ve played this course so many times on the Asian Tour and I think I have a bit of an advantage on this course, knowing where the slopes are and where to miss it. I think it’s going to be a great week.”
Rahm is coming off a great week in Hong Kong as the two-time reigning LIV Golf Individual Champion won his first tournament since 2024. He birdied three of his first seven holes Thursday and finished with a flourish with two consecutive birdies.
He feasted off the par 5s in Hong Kong, making birdie or better on each of the two at Hong Kong Golf Club in every round. He continued that trend Thursday on with birdies on each of The Serapong’s three par 5s.
“I’m hitting it better off the tee, so it all starts with that on a par 5 where you’ve got to put it into play,” said Rahm, whose Legion XIII has a six-shot lead over DeChambeau’s Crushers on the team leaderboard.
“Once you’re in play, I’m long enough to have a comfortable number, usually, into the par 5s, and I think that’s been the main difference. It’s just everything so far this year is just a little bit better than it’s been in the past.”
DeChambeau, meanwhile, played his final 10 holes in 5 under, ending the round with three consecutive birdies. His only slip-up was a double bogey at the par-4 fifth when he found trouble out of a fairway bunker and then a greenside bunker.
He continues to chase the form that he showed in 2023 LIV Golf Greenbrier when he shot a league-record 12-under 58 to win the first of his three LIV Golf titles.
“Things just haven’t quite lined up yet,” he said. “It may just pop up with one golf shot. I don’t know. I’m one swing thought away. I’m really close is what I’m saying. I’m close to figuring out what that exact thing is, but I have to dial in my irons a little bit more.”
