Five Uzbekistan players were handed one-match bans by FIFA on Friday for deliberately picking up yellow cards in a World Cup 2014 qualifying match at home to Tajikistan in November last year.
Uzbekistan had already qualified for the fourth round of Asian qualifying and five players went into the game against Tajikstan knowing that their next booking would incur a one-match suspension.
After Uzbekistan went 2-0 up, the five were shown yellow cards for time-wasting during the last 20 minutes of the game, meaning they would serve their suspensions in the dead-rubber final third-round match against Japan in Toyota on February 29.
However, FIFA was alerted to their actions and on Friday announced that the players would serve additional one-match suspensions for the first game of the fourth round.
"Having reviewed the official match reports and footage of the incidents, as well as taking into consideration all of the circumstances, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee decided to sanction the five players under article 57 of the FDC (FIFA Disciplinary Code) and additionally sanctioned the Uzbekistan FA in accordance with article 52(a)," read a FIFA statement.
"Shavkatjon Mulladjanov, Sanjar Tursunov, Islom Tuhtahujaev, Server Djeparov and Vagiz Galiulin have been sanctioned with a one-match suspension, to be served during Uzbekistan's first match in round 4 of the AFC preliminary competition for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, in addition to the automatic suspension incurred for two yellow cards (art. 17 par 3 of the FDC).
"Each player has also been fined CHF 3,000 ($3,270). The Uzbekistan FA has been fined CHF18,000."
The fourth round of Asian qualifying is scheduled to begin on June 3 and will finish in June 2013.
Uzbekistan, semi-finalists at last year's Asian Cup in Qatar, have never previously qualified for the World Cup finals.
Source: AFP
