RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal has demanded an investigation into the controversial AFC Champions League final, calling it a “black spot” on Asian football and raising suspicions about possible match-fixing.
The Saudi giants took aim at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) after going down 1-0 on aggregate to Western Sydney Wanderers in a two-legged final.
Al Hilal had several penalty appeals waved away over the course of the two legs and Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura, known for a spot-fix blunder at this year’s World Cup, took charge of the second fixture.
“What happened in the second leg of the AFC Champions League final is a black spot in the history of Asian football and looting of the right of an entire people who has been waiting for happiness and enjoyment of fair competition,” a statement said.
It added that “blunders” in the final “appeared suspiciously and tarnished the reputation of the AFC, which raised many questions about the AFC championships and the integrity and fairness of its competitions, and the need to ensure the absence of any effect of betting offices scattered among football.”
Al Hilal urged the AFC to investigate who was responsible for selecting the match referees, claiming they waved away two “explicit penalties” in the first leg and four in the second.
The club took particular issue with the appointment of Nishimura, who was de-selected from World Cup duty after giving hosts Brazil a highly debatable penalty in their tournament opener against Croatia.
“Appointing him as a referee for the match is a big mistake that requires investigation and causes punishment,” the statement said.
There was no immediate response from the AFC. The Wanderers became the first Australian team to win the Asian title and they were mobbed by fans on their return to Sydney.
Al Hilal demands probe into ‘black spot’ AFC final
Al Hilal demands probe into ‘black spot’ AFC final
Ex-heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua injured in Nigeria highway crash
- Pictures circulating online showed a shirtless Joshua — a British national of Nigerian heritage — surrounded by what appeared to be broken window glass
LAGOS: Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua suffered “minor injuries” in a fatal car accident that killed two people Monday, Nigerian police said.
Pictures circulating online showed a shirtless Joshua — a British national of Nigerian heritage — surrounded by what appeared to be broken window glass on the seats around him.
The circumstances around the wreck are “currently being investigated,” said police in Ogun state, just north of Nigeria’s economic capital Lagos, which throngs with visitors from across the country and diaspora each December.
Joshua “was seated in the rear of the vehicle, sustained minor injuries and (is) receiving medical attention,” the police statement said.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn told Daily Mail Sport he was on a family holiday and “awoke to the news of this incident.”
“We are trying to contact Anthony and in the meantime we don’t want to speculate on how he is but thankfully he appears OK from what I have seen in the images,” he said.
Police said the wreck, in which two people in Joshua’s car were killed, occurred around 11:00 am, in the town of Makun, along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Nigeria’s Federal Road Safety Corps said in a statement that the Lexus Joshua was riding in “was suspected to be traveling beyond the legally prescribed speed limit on the corridor, lost control during an overtaking maneuver and crashed into a stationary truck... by the side of the road.”
Witness Adeniyi Orojo told Punch news Joshua was traveling in a two-vehicle convoy, and was seated behind his driver.
“The passenger beside the driver and the person beside Joshua died on the spot,” he said.
The police gave the same toll, saying the two killed were “passengers in the vehicle” who “lost their lives at the scene.”
The names of the victims have not been released but a spokesman for the Ogun state governor said preliminary reports indicated they were “two male foreign nationals.”
Earlier this month Joshua knocked out YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in a Netflix-backed bout in Miami.
The former Olympic champion Joshua has since been linked with a fight against compatriot and fellow former world champion Tyson Fury.
Joshua’s last fight prior to the match with Paul was a fifth round knockout loss to fellow Briton Daniel Dubois in September last year.
