Bloody brawl mars Ratchaburi triumph
A bloody brawl involving Chonburi Tiago Cunha and Ratchaburi manager Tanawat Nitikanjana not only marred the Thai League 1 activities on Saturday night but also led to opposing police reports being filed by both parties.
The incident took place at the end of the first half of the match between the two sides which hosts Ratchaburi won 5-1.
Tanawat was seen complaining to the match referee as the players, including Cunha, left the field for the locker rooms at the end of first half. As the Ratchaburi manager moved away, the Brazilian sprayed drinking water on him from his bottle.
Tanawat rushed back to Cunha and slapped the Sharks’ striker on the back of his head. The Brazilian reacted by splashing more water on the Ratchaburi team boss.
It is alleged that a guard then punched Cunha in the face, leaving the forward needing six stitches.
Chonburi later took Cunha to Ratchaburi police station to file a report about the incident, and Ratchaburi responded in kind with a complaint, claiming: “Cunha had hurt a guard at the venue.”
The match was suspended for 45 minutes in the wake of the incident and Cunha was given a red card by the referee, leaving Chonburi with 10 men on the field.
Chonburi head coach Therdsak Chaiman said after the game: “The security at the venue was really terrible today.
“I fail to understand how someone could be allowed to hit our player. This has never happened before and Cunha is seriously injured with a broken nose. I can understand Cunha’s anger over the incident.
“We were left with 10 men because Cunha got the red card because of something which involved non-players.”
The league’s disciplinary committee meets tomorrow to discuss the incident. If found guilty, Tanawat faces a three-month suspension, while Cunha is staring at a three-match ban and fines.
Ratchaburi had their goals through Marcel Essombe (third, 35th and 87th minutes), Montri Promsawat (39th) and an own goal by Chonlatit Jantakam in the 56th. Chonburi’s only goal was scored by Nurul Sriyankem in the last minute.
Meanwhile, Bangkok United defeated hosts Sukhothai 4-1 in their Thai League 1 clash on Saturday night.
The first goal of the high-scoring game came in the 20th minute when Sukhothai’s Nattawut Kumrin broke free on the wing and crossed the ball to John Baggio to score from within a few yards.
Bangkok United took only eight minutes to even the score with Dragan Boskovic setting up Mario Gjurovski for the equaliser.
The visitors got their second in the 34th minute when Sorrawat Detchmitr opened the ball to Boskovic to tap it home
A few minutes later, a spectacular exchange of short passes between Teerathep Winothai and Gjurovski ended up with the former extending Bangkok United’s lead to 3-1 shortly before the half time.
Sukhothai came back strong in the second half and Korean Jung Myung-Ho came close to pulling one back for them but Bangkok United goalkeeper Kittipong Puthewchuek cleared it out from the goal-line.
Bangkok United wrapped up the scoring with Boskovic striking home again to claim their sixth straight victory in a row.
At the Leo stadium, hosts Bangkok Glass picked three points by beating Navy 3-0.
In other matches on Saturday night, it was: Suphanburi 3 (Dellatorre 28, Anawin Jujeen 43 and Prait Junthum 50) Police Tero FC 2 (Seksit Seesai 66 and Khalifa Cisse 72); and Super Power 0 Nakhon Ratchasima 5 (Paulo Rangel 4, 42 and 47, Dominic Adiyiah 6 and Naruepol Arom-sawa 90).