BISHKEK, Jan 22 — Football fans in ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan piled on to social media today to vent anger at a referee who denied their men’s team an unprecedented quarter-final berth in the AFC Asian Cup.
Chinese referee Fu Ming played a decisive role in deciding the fate of a tie between hosts the United Arab Emirates and tournament debutants Kyrgyzstan when he awarded a controversial extra-time penalty to UAE.
With Kyrgyzstan unable to come back from the goal in a pulsating game, many Kyrgyz took to social media using the hashtag #fumingshame to express their displeasure at the decision after the match.
“I’ve told my husband we won’t be going to a Chinese restaurant for a month... #fumingshame,” tweeted Umay Arykova, in one of hundreds of posts using the hashtag.
Angry internet users also edited the referee’s English-language Wikipedia entry, inserting Kyrgyz and Russian swearwords.
The knockout tie with the UAE came days after a hundreds-strong protest against migration from cash-poor Kyrgyzstan’s giant neighbour China, as well as loans from the country that protestors said facilitate local corruption.
Kyrgyzstan had suffered defeat to China during the group stages earlier this month in a closely fought game that turned on a bad goalkeeping error.
But the White Falcons — as Kyrgyzstan’s national team are known — saved some of their best football for the second half of the game with the UAE.
Kyrgyz substitute Tursunali Rustamov stunned the Emirates when he snatched a dramatic stoppage-time equaliser at the end of a nail-biting contest that had begun poorly for the former Soviet republic.
It took the home side just 14 minutes to break through as Khamis Esmaeel headed in an Ismail Matar corner.
Plucky Kyrgyzstan refused to go down without a fight, however, and the White Falcons equalised midway through the first half when Mirlan Murzaev squeezed the ball in from a seemingly impossible angle.
Kyrgyzstan missed an opportunity to cancel out Ahmed Khalil’s winning penalty at the death of the game when Rustamov slammed the ball against the frame of the goal from close range.
The game was watched with great enthusiasm both inside the stadium and at home by Kyrgyz, whose national team had never before qualified for a major international tournament. — AFP
