In the wake of the threat from Beijing Hyundai Guoan to withdraw from the Chinese Super League, Dato Peter Velappan, General Secretary of the Asian Football Confederation, urged the Chinese governing body to undertake a serious investigation into the club's grievances.
Speaking ahead of his visit to Wuhan and Qingdao for the second phase of Vision China - a scheme to promote the game on the mainland - Velappan commented, 'It is very unfortunate that while the Chinese Football Association [CFA] is trying to build up a very professional C-League, such walk-outs by clubs, for whatever reasons, are completely unacceptable.'
Velappan was commenting on the incident where Beijing players walked out of their match against Shenyang Ginde in the 84th minute after the referee's decision to award the latter a penalty kick. The match was abandoned with the score at 1-1, but the referee awarded a 3-0 win to the home side.
'I will have the opportunity to have discussions with the high-ranking officials of the CFA and, of course, the CFA must take seriously the allegations of its clubs concerning the league and the referees. It is not good publicity for Chinese football and I hope too that all the clubs will co-operate in order to improve quality and image of the Chinese Super League.'
Beijing pulled out of the Super League last Wednesday, citing rampant corruption for their decision. Manager Yang Zuwu claimed at the time that the league faced collapse because of the amount of graft and match fixing.