Theerathon Bunmathan and Dion Cools banned from Asian Cup for participating in brawl in China?

"If the AFC imposes heavy sanctions on individual players of Zhejiang (China) and Buriram United (Thailand) for participating in a fierce brawl and tarnishing the image of Asian football at the AFC Champions League, it is likely that famous players such as Theerathon Bunmathan (Thailand team) and Dion Cools (Malaysia) will be banned from participating in the 2023 Asian Cup," VOCKET FC said.

Dion Cools (Malaysia national team) is playing for Buriram United Club

"Malaysia's main defender, Dion Cools, 27, is a player of Buriram United. During the fight, this star initially rushed in to try to stop the melee. But then, when he saw Zhejiang FC players violently beating his teammate Ramil Sheydayev, Dion Cools also joined the fight by grabbing a Zhejiang player by the neck and dragging him out.

Dion Cools' actions were immediately met with a fight by Zhejiang players. Luckily, this player was saved by Buriram United coaching staff, so he avoided the assault," VOCKET FC shared, based on images from a new clip of the fight that was just released on November 30.

"Also from this new clip shared on social network X (old Twitter), the source of the terrible incident started from some Buriram United players arguing and possibly having words and actions that provoked Zhejiang's reserve players, who entered the field when the match had just ended.

Some of the images identified show that the first provocateur was defender Theerathon Bunmathan of the Thai national team and Buriram United Club. After that, many Zhejiang players from inside and outside the field rushed into the fight, causing chaos and pushing Theerathon Bunmathan away. Theerathon Bunmathan then showed restraint and tried to avoid the hot spots of the fight, as well as pulling his teammates away from the assaults," VOCKET FC added.

Theerathon Bunmathan (in circle) is pushed away after allegedly provoking and inciting the fight.

Dion Cools (shirt number 11) tried to intervene, but also got into a fight and argued with the Chinese team players.

The AFC has now launched an investigation into the ugliest brawl in the history of the AFC Champions League and Asian football. Both Zhejiang and Buriram United face hefty penalties. But the Chinese club could be punished more severely for allowing the incident to happen on their home turf, allowing foreign objects to be thrown onto the pitch, as well as for failing to ensure security and prevent the incident early.

Thai media said that Buriram United players were severely beaten. Meanwhile, some Chinese public opinion criticized Thai players such as Theerathon Bunmathan for inciting the incident. Former Chinese player Fan Zhiyi criticized Russian player Ramil Sheydayev for choking a Zhejiang player in a mixed martial arts brawl, which could have killed the player.

Ramil Sheydayev (left) provoked Zhejiang Club on social media after the incident.

Meanwhile, Malaysian player Dion Cools was criticized by many Chinese netizens as ungrateful and unrooted for participating in a brawl against Chinese players from Zhejiang FC. They cited the reason that this player's mother is of Chinese descent, and that Dion Cools had intended to play for the Chinese team, but later chose the Malaysian team.

The father of player Leon James (Buriram United Club) protested, saying that his son and Dion Cools only tried to stop the incident, but were still assaulted by Chinese players, and demanded that AFC severely punish Zhejiang Club.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/tham-gia-au-da-o-trung-quoc-theerathon-bunmathan-va-dion-cools-bi-cam-du-asian-cup-185231201111931429.htm