Tunisian goalkeeper Chokri al-Ouaer has been barred from African Football Confederation (Caf) club championships for one year after faking injury, the organisation said on Monday.
The ban follows a weekend meeting of Caf officials in Ghana, during which they discussed a bizarre incident involving veteran Al-Ouaer midway through the second half of the African Champions League final last December.
Play was disrupted when police fired teargas to quell a crowd disturbance with Esperance of Tunisia leading Hearts of Oak of Ghana 1-0 in the return match of the African club showpiece.
Al-Ouaer then ran to the halfway line with blood streaming from several facial wounds and collapsed.
Teammates alleged he had been struck by missiles flung from the predominantly Ghanaian crowd.
But the South African assistant referee, Achmat Salie, and several witnesses said Al-Ouaer, who played for Tunisia at the 1998 World Cup in France, cut himself with a teargas canister handed over by an Esperance fan.
The supporter raced to the Tunisian reserves bench where he swopped his Esperance shirt for a Manchester United one while compatriots prevented photographers taking pictures.
Al-Ouaer, who was hoping to have the final abandoned and awarded to his team, was carried off and Esperance conceded three late goals to lose the match 3-1 and the tie 5-2 on aggregate.
The ban prevents Al-Ouaer playing for Esperance in the African Champions League, but he can represent his country in World Cup and African Nations Cup qualifiers and play domestic football.
Caf was expected to punish Al-Ouaer more severely as a Chilean goalkeeper who faked injury during a World Cup qualifier 12 years ago was banned for life by Fifa.
Roberto Rojas cut himself with a blade during a clash with Brazil in Rio de Janeiro and alleged a flare had struck him only to be exposed by TV evidence. - Sapa-AFP