China may face Utrecht ban

If the rumours and rumblings circulating in hockey circles around Harare are to be believed, Ireland's 7th-8th place play-off against Russia this morning in the World Cup qualifying tournament might be a whole lot more significant than first imagined.

Despite having two players and their manager suspended for the remainder of the tournament, China - who beat Ireland on Sunday to take the final World Cup qualifying place - may face further action from the International Hockey Federation (FIH) following incidents at the end of their match against Scotland on Friday night.

Claire Peeters-Monseau, the tournament director in Harare, will send a report on the incidents to the FIH disciplinary committee and she confirmed yesterday that it is within their power to suspend China from international competition. In such an event the team finishing seventh in the tournament would replace China in the 12 nation line-up at Utrecht next May.

The incidents followed the final Pool B match between China and Scotland when the Chinese needed just a draw to guarantee their qualification for the World Cup. Japanese umpire Naomi Kato's decision to award Scotland a short corner in the 59th minute, from which they scored the only goal of the match, infuriated the Chinese and led to the extraordinary scenes at full-time.

Kato was surrounded by a group of Chinese players and when the second umpire, Jean Buchanan of South Africa, went to her assistance, the two were "physically abused and attacked", according to technical director Angeline Ee of Singapore.

Kato was hit with hockey sticks by at least two players, had another stick thrown at her and was pushed and jostled by the rest of the group. Leslie Falconer, the umpires' manager, reserve umpire Peri Buckley and a policeman then arrived on the scene only to be angrily confronted by Chinese officials.

Fortunately for the Chinese, the television cameras largely focused on the celebrating Scottish players and missed most of the incidents. So, the view here among most officials is that the lack of video evidence to back up eye-witness accounts of what happened may make the FIH reluctant to take drastic action in suspending them from the World Cup.

The disciplinary committee will meet next month to discuss the affair. Meanwhile Ireland and Russia will hope that a victory today in their play-off may be enough, after all, to win a trip to Holland.