August 25 – Marcello Lippi, Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning coach now in charge of China’s Guangzhou Evergrande, has been suspended for one game for confronting the referee during an AFC Champions League match.
The incident happened during last week’s quarter-final first leg away to Australia’s Western Sydney Wanderers when Guangzhou lost 1-0.
Defending champion Guangzhou finished the game with nine men after Zhang Linpeng and Goa Lin were sent off in the final minutes, prompting Lippi to charge on to the pitch and confront referee Mohammed Abdulla Hassan Mohamed of the United Arab Emirates. He will now be banned from the dugout for Wednesday’s second leg.
“I’ve been to all the biggest competitions like World Cups, Champions League and I know it was wrong to go in the field,” said Lippi. “But you also watched the match and the two red cards. The first one I didn’t see very clearly but the second one was very close to me so I saw that it was not on purpose.”
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