Football
Michael Church, Asia correspondent 7y

AVB, Hulk and Wu Lei banned and fined for protests against Oscar suspension

Shanghai SIPG trio Andre Villas-Boas, Hulk and Wu Lei have been handed two-match bans and fined 50,000 RMB each for wearing shirts bearing slogans in support of Oscar.

The former Chelsea midfielder was banned for eight games after he was adjudged to have instigated a melee during the draw with Guangzhou R&F two weeks ago.

Hulk and Wu came out in support of Oscar following last weekend's 4-1 win over Henan Jianye, which kept SIPG four points adrift of league leaders Guangzhou Evergrande.

Villas-Boas, meanwhile, was banned for two games for a post on his Instagram page that questioned Oscar's treatment by the Chinese authorities.

"355 career games; 5 years in the English Premier League; 47 appearances for Brazil; 70 goals. ZERO RED CARDS!!! 8 games suspended," said the message, which appeared on Villas-Boas' Instagram last week and ended with a thumbs down emoticon.

SIPG were also fined 100,000 RMB for a "dereliction of duty," the Chinese Football Association said in a statement on their official website.

The trio will be absent from this weekend's meeting with Jiangsu Suning and next week's clash with Changchun Yatai.

Jiangsu Suning assistant coach Gianluca Zambrotta, who joined the club following the arrival of Fabio Capello as head coach, was also given a two-game ban and a fine of 10,000 RMB for his involvement in a post-match melee following Jiangsu's draw with Beijing Guoan on Monday evening.

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