The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced in Kuala Lumpur yesterday that it would reduce Shandong Luneng midfielder Zheng Zhi's six-month suspension to just three games at the Asian Champions League. The decision was made after the AFC heard the China Super League club's appeal on behalf of their star player.

Zheng was suspended after an incident where he spat at a match official during an Asian Champions League quarterfinal match with Al Ittihad in September.

On Monday afternoon,?Luneng decided to slap a fine of 70,000 yuan (US$8,665) on Zheng.

"In the beginning, my expectations of the appeal weren't very high. But I'm grateful to the club for what they have done for me. I'm thankful to so many people, especially Dong Gang, who has just left his post of general manager," Zheng said.

The main reason for the AFC's decision was that they had, in September, instituted a disciplinary regulation stipulating that the punished side has the right to be notified and to appeal before concrete punishment measures are made. According to Dong Gang, former general manager of Luneng, who was quoted in Titan Sports yesterday, the club didn't receive the notice before the punishment was meted out.?

"Our success in the appeal can be attributed to the loophole in their (AFC) working procedure and I don't think this same loophole can be used again," Dong added.

Since 1985, five Chinese soccer players have been banned by the AFC for serious violations of discipline, and the Zheng case is the first where an appeal to the AFC has been successful.

The revised three-game suspension has little impact on?Luneng because they failed to qualify for the 2006 ACL after losing the China FA Cup final to Dalian last month. In any case, Zheng, their 25-year-old star, will be able to play for his club from the beginning of the 2006 China Super League season.

It's the national team that will be affected by Zheng's suspension. "The national team is in an even worse position because Zheng will not be able to play the first three rounds in next year's Asian Cup qualification," Zhu Guanghu, head coach of China's national team, said.

Commenting on the reduction of the suspension, Zheng's agent Wang Bensen said that either way, it's not great news. Zheng's plan of playing abroad has now become more difficult. Zheng was scheduled to try out for the German League A this winter.

Besides Zheng, Luneng's coach Ljubisa Tumbakovic and player Predrag Padzin, who were banned six months and 18 months respectively, also had their punishments reduced to six and 12 matches respectively.

(China.org.cn by Li Xiao, December 6, 2005)