EASTERN may be in trouble with the Asian Football Confederation for playing striker Dale Tempest in the first leg of their Asian Club Championship first-round tie at Mongkok Stadium yesterday, writes Jeremy Walker.
The Hong Kong champions, who beat Yomiuri Verdy from Japan 1-0 with a 65th minute goal from Chiu Chun-ming, signed Tempest on Thursday afternoon and registered him with the Hong Kong FA on Friday.
While this made him eligible under local registration rules, the AFC require players to be registered 15 days before the tie.
Although the team managers of Eastern and Yomiuri met an AFC official on Saturday morning, it is believed Yomiuri gave their permission for Tempest to play in the belief that they were simply agreeing to a replacement for injured Ross Greer.
Visiting officials did not learn until yesterday that Tempest had only been signed towards the end of the week.
Eastern team manager Peter Leung said: ''We may have a problem because Tempest was not given enough time to be registered with the AFC.
