Chinese Super League outfit Shandong Taishan have been banned from participating in continental competition for two years following their no-show in the AFC Champions League Elite earlier this year.
Shandong's decision not to turn up for a game against Ulsan HD on Feb. 19 led to them being deemed to have withdrawn from the tournament after it had commenced, in line with Article 5 of the ACL Elite's Competition Regulations -- which was the main case they had to answer and were penalised for, rather than for simply failing to take part in the solitary match where all this stemmed from.
The decision, which was reached at an Asian Football Confederation Disciplinary and Ethics Committee Meeting on July 30, means the club will not be eligible to compete in an AFC tournament at least until the 2027-28 season and also incur a fine of US$50,000.
Further payment received as participation fee and performance bonus -- totalling $800,000 -- has been ordered to be returned to the AFC, along with $40,000 of compensation claimed by South Korea's Ulsan due to damages and losses stemming from Shandong's last-minute decision not to play the match.
The dramatic turn of events occurred when Shandong stated their intention not to report for the match just hours before kickoff due to "serious physical discomfort of team members".
A brief statement on the club's official Weibo account stated that their medical team had evaluated that they were "unable to assemble a side" to participate in the tie.
The AFC promptly responded by declaring that Shandong were "considered to have withdrawn" from the tournament,
Their decision, even more perplexing given they only need a draw to progress from the league stage to the round of 16, threw the tournament into disarray.
Given the 12 teams in both the East and West Regions only play eight games in the group stage, the fact that Shandong's results becoming null and void meant that the final standings had teams finishing with an unequal number of matches played.
Put simply, the seven teams that had played -- or were due to meet -- Shandong would only have seven matches on record, while the three sides they had not been drawn to face -- compatriots Shanghai Port and Shanghai Shenhua, as well as Thai League 1 champions Buriram United -- played a full complement of eight games.
Curiously, the top five teams in the East region all had just seven matches to their names and clearly were not affected by their results against Shandong being struck off the record.
Nonetheless, 9th-placed Pohang Steelers had reason to feel aggrieved given they finished just two points behind Shanghai Port in the final qualification spot -- a deficit they would have made up if the three points from their 4-2 victory over Shandong back in November had stood.
There were initially various conspiracy theories emerging on social media surrounding Shandong's no-show, with one claiming locals had surrounded the hotel that the team stayed in and made a demonstration of a political nature -- which understandably could have affected the condition of the players.
This was also said to potentially be a retaliatory gesture to another allegation that, during Shandong's previous game a week earlier on home soil against another South Korean team in Gwangju FC, Chinese fans present at the match had displayed photos of certain individuals of a sensitive nature.
These were originally said to include North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un, although there was a subsequent report that Shandong apologised for their fans holding up photos of former South Korean president Chun Doo-Hwan, known as the 'Butcher of Gwangju' for brutally suppressing an uprising in the city in 1980.
Shandong's ban will not directly affect them this season given they did not qualify for continental competition following a fifth-place finish in the CSL last term.
Instead, Shanghai Port and Shanghai Shenhua will once again feature in the ACL Elite, with Chengdu Rongcheng a chance to join them via the qualifying playoffs, while Beijing Guoan will participate in the second-tier AFC Champions League Two.