Chinese football champs fine captain for handshake snub

Shanghai (AFP) – Chinese champions Guangzhou Evergrande fined captain Zheng Zhi for failing to gather all his players to shake the hands of match officials after the dramatic weekend defeat at Tianjin Quanjian.

The Chinese international midfielder becomes the latest major name to hit disciplinary trouble in the Chinese Super League (CSL), with the Shanghai SIPG quartet of Oscar, Hulk, Wu Lei and manager Andre Villas-Boas all serving bans.

Evergrande slapped Zheng with a 100,000 yuan ($15,000) fine and warned him about his future conduct for “failing to meet the high standards of team management requirements”.

“All coaches and players are required to respect their opponent and referees during the match,” the statement added.

Evergrande players shook hands with their opponents in the 4-3 loss at Tianjin but not with the referee or his assistants, media reports said.

Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Evergrande saw their lead over SIPG at the top of the CSL cut to a single point following the defeat on Sunday.