Wed, August 06, 2025
Chinese football club Shandong handed 2-year ban and a $890K loss after ACL Elite withdrawal
Chinese football club Shandong Taishan has received a 2-year ban from Asian club competition and will forfeit around $890K after withdrawing from the Asian Champions League (ACL) Elite in February, just hours before a key match against South Korea’s Ulsan HD.
Shandong withdrew hours before the match on 19 February due to “serious physical discomfort” of players and therefore its inability to form a team.
Shandong’s official statement read: “Due to serious physical discomfort of the team members, and after evaluation by the medical team, the players were unable to form a team to participate against Ulsan HD Football Club…
We deeply regret this and apologise to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Ulsan HD, the fans and all sectors of society.”
Before pulling out, Shandong only required a draw against Ulsan which would have secured its progression to the last 16.
The AFC’s Disciplinary and Ethics Commission ruled that Shandong will be prohibited from AFC club competitions up to and including the 2026-27 season, and the club was also fined a hefty $50K.
Additionally, Shandong has to return a participation fee of $600K and a performance bonus of $200K to the AFC. It also owes $40K to Ulsan HD “in respect of damages and losses claimed.” Therefore, the club will lose around $890K in total. This equates to roughly 6,393,849 Chinese Yuan.
As Shandong was deemed to have withdrawn from the tournament after it had commenced, in line with Article 5 of the ACL Elite's Competition Regulations, which was the main case they had to answer and were penalised for rather than for simply failing to take part in the solitary match against Ulsan, as stated by ESPN, it was fined a significant amount.
Furthermore, Shandong received this penalty because it caused disarray for the tournament as a whole with its no-show. The seven teams that had played, or were due to meet, Shandong only had seven matches on record, while the three teams they had not been drawn to compete against played a full eight games.
Shandong withdrew from the event days after it banned supporters for “inappropriate behaviour” during a home ACL game against South Korea’s Gwangju FC. Fans had held up images of Chun Doo-hwan, South Korea’s last military dictator. Hundreds perished when Chun Doo-hwan suppressed the Gwangju uprising led by pro-democracy protestors in 1980.
