T-Team makes police reports over assault of players

T-Team have lodged police reports alleging that a top Johor FA official had assaulted two of their players and a fitness coach.

Striker Evaldo Goncalves, defender Fabio Flor de Azevado, fitness coach Stefano Impagliazzo and the club’s chief operating officer Mohd Syahrizan Mohd Zain lodged the reports at the Kuala Terengganu district police headquarters at 11pm on Sunday.

It is learnt that the reports were lodged to ensure “the safety of T-Team’s players” and named the “president of the Johor FA” as the perpetrator.

The reports state that Brazilian striker Goncalves was punched in the nose by the top official while Impagliazzo was kicked in the groin by the official’s escort in the Larkin Stadium tunnel when the two teams were trooping out at half-time during their FA Cup second round clash on Saturday. JDT were leading 2-1 at that time.

T-Team refused to come out for the second half and the match was abandoned.

Brazilian defender de Azevado also lodged a report claiming that he was verbally abused and threatened by the same official.

T-Team coach Azraai Khor Abdullah expressed hope that the authorities would act on the incident immediately.

“There’s nothing more we can do ... we’ll leave it to the authorities to handle it. For now, I want my players to put the incident behind them and focus on their football.

“We have a big match against Armed Forces this Saturday and I want the players to be in the right state of mind,” said Azraai, adding that team morale had not been too affected by the incident.

As for the victims, Azraai said that he understood the concern over their safety in the country.

“We cannot really stop them if they feel unsafe here. But they are good professionals and I think they will get over it,” said Azraai.