Recently, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) issued a decision to sanction Hanoi Police Club, with heavy disciplinary action both professionally and financially.
The Vietnamese representative was defeated 0-3 by Tampines Rovers in the first leg of the AFC Champions League Two round of 16, and also had to pay a fine and be reduced half of the tournament participation fee.
Accordingly, Hanoi Police will only receive 40,000 USD instead of 80,000 USD as initially, equivalent to a loss of about 1 billion VND. In addition, the team will also be fined an additional 2,000 USD for violating regulations on player status. If they have received more than the prescribed level, the club is forced to return the surplus to AFC.
AFC said that Hanoi Police did not comply with the obligation to monitor the number of yellow cards of players and did not ensure that all registered players were eligible. The continental football governing body affirmed that this is a serious error in the management of match personnel.
The incident originated from the first leg of the AFC Champions League Two round of 16, where Hanoi Police won against Tampines Rovers 4-0 at Hang Day Stadium. However, 2 foreign players Stefan Mauk and Rogerio Alves both received 3 yellow cards in the group stage, meaning they are suspended in the next match according to the 2025-2026 season regulations.
However, both were still registered and played in the match against the Singaporean representative. Notably, foreign player Alves also scored 1 goal.
According to AFC regulations, players who receive enough yellow cards leading to suspension will not have their cards revoked when entering the knockout round. The use of players who are not qualified to play caused Hanoi Police to be defeated 0-3.
Previously, a Japanese team was also defeated for registering players who had not completed suspension from their old team, showing that AFC applies very strict regulations.
According to the schedule, Hanoi Police will play away against Tampines Rovers in the second leg on February 18 (ie, the 2nd day of Tet).
