Bengaluru/Doha, September 24: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League, which resumed from the six-month novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic enforced break in Qatar recently, plunged into a crisis after Saudi Arabia's defending champions Al Hilal were forced to withdraw from the competition after being unable to field a full team due to an outbreak of the dreaded virus in the team.
The Saudi Arabian team has been hit with a reported 31 infections of players and officials during the group stage of Asia's premier club competition, and could only name nine starting players and two substitute goalkeepers for the final West Asian Group B game against Shabab Al Ahli Dubai of the United Arab Emirates.
Tournament rules state that teams unable to field 13 players will forfeit all games, meaning that Al Hilal, which had already clinched a place in the knockout stages due to previous results, would be unable to defend its title.
"All matches played by Al Hilal, who named only 11 players, are considered null and void according to Article 6 of the AFC Champions League regulations and therefore Pakhtakor of Uzbekistan and Shabab Al Ahli Dubai have progressed to the Round of 16 from Group B," the AFC said in a statement.
🚨 BREAKING 🚨
— #ACL2020 (@TheAFCCL) September 23, 2020
🇸🇦 Al Hilal are deemed to have withdrawn from the #ACL2020 after not being able to name the required 13 players for Group B match against 🇦🇪 Shabab Al Ahli!https://t.co/27cH1Bo2aM
Al Hilal requested that the game be postponed to allow players to recover.
"We only have 11 players before the match, including three goalkeepers. In Europe, there're clear instructions to cancel or postpone matches in such circumstances," Al Hilal's Romanian coach Lazvan Lucescu said.
The Al Hilal FC Board of Directors later issued a statement on their Twitter handle, concerning the team's situation.
📄 An Official Statement from #AlHilal Board of Directors Concerning the Team’s Situation at the AFC Champions League pic.twitter.com/5CfEQuyG7B
— AlHilal Saudi Club (@Alhilal_EN) September 23, 2020
However the request was not approved with the AFC saying "a postponement would have a huge negative impact on the current match schedule of the AFC Champions League (West) and so no exception was granted."
The AFC Champions League tournament regulations allowed for 35 players to be registered by each club, but Al Hilal registered 30 of which only 27 travelled to Doha in the beginning of the competition.
Al Hilal had won the title last year, beating Uruwa Red Diamonds of Japan 3-0 on aggregate in the final.
(With AFC Media inputs)