#INSERT type:image caption:Asian Champions League winners Guangzhou Evergrande were fined for secretly filming their rival before the final.END#
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Asian Champions League winners Guangzhou Evergrande have been fined for secretly filming their opponents' training session before the second leg of the final.
Chinese club Evergrande must pay $160,000 for violating several rules around the return match against Al Ahli of United Arab Emirates in China last November, the Asian Football Confederation said on Wednesday.
The fine was announced on the same day that Evergrande agreed to pay $45.8 million (€42 million) to sign Colombia forward Jackson Martinez from Atletico Madrid.
Evergrande must also play their first group stage match in this year's competition behind closed doors. The Chinese Football Association was also fined $10,000 by the AFC.
The governing body said $10,000 of the club's fine is for "bad conduct [filming the closed official training of the away team]" by an Evergrande member of staff the day before winning the second leg.
Evergrande, coached by Luiz Felipe Scolari, won 1-0 to take the title by the same aggregate score. There was no suggestion that Scolari was involved in the illicit filming.
A total of $100,000 of the fine was imposed for "conducting an unauthorised post-match ceremony, infringing upon the commercial rights of AFC sponsors," the AFC said.