Football scandal in Saudi Arabia: a spectator attacked a player with a whip

lAfter moving to Real Madrid, Figo was pelted with a pig’s head by angry Barcelona fans when he attempted to take a corner. Oliver Kahn was hit in the head by a ball during a game in Freiburg. And again and again beer glasses, lighters and bottles of schnapps fly over the players’ ears as angry spectators lose control.

The Saudi Arabian Super Cup final saw audience anger reach new levels. After a very one-sided game between Al Hilal of Riyadh and Al Ittihad of Jeddah (4:1), played not in Saudi Arabia, but at the Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, one the player was beaten by a visitor.

Player splashes with water from a bottle

The target of the attack in front of Brazilian superstar Neymar, who was paid by Al-Hilal but is currently injured, was Abderrazaq Hamdallah: the striker plays alongside Karim Benzema at Al-Ittihad. When the Moroccan national team player, the scorer of the temporary goal, wanted to leave the field for the locker room after the game, a confrontation with a spectator occurred shortly before entering the catacombs.

About videos circulating on the Internet, you can see a man in the stands shouting something to Hamdallah first. The player reacts and also splashes the water bottle. The spectator then pulls out a whip and swings it twice towards Hamdallah. Security then intervened in the stands and Hamdallah was protected and restrained by his fellow players. According to media reports, the fan was later arrested.

There was already a scandal in the semi-final of the Saudi Arabian Super Cup – because of Cristiano Ronaldo. When his club Al Nasr lost to Al Hilal (0:2), the Portuguese first attacked his opponent Ali Al Bulayhi shortly before the final whistle. After referee Mohamed Khaled Al-Hoaish showed Ronaldo red, he threatened him with a raised fist. The FIFA World Cup is expected to be held in Saudi Arabia in 2034.