Sebastian Giovinco’s Al-Hilal bounced from Asian Champions League after 31 COVID-19 cases

Defending champion Al-Hilal was forced to withdraw from the Asian Champions League on Wednesday after being unable to field a full team because of a coronavirus outbreak.

The Saudi Arabian team has been hit with a reported 31 infections of players and officials during the group stage of Asia’s premier club competition, including former Toronto FC star Sebastian Giovinco, and could only name nine starting players and two substitute goalkeepers for the final Group B game against Shabab Al Ahli Dubai of the United Arab Emirates.

Tournament rules state that teams unable to field 13 players will forfeit all games, meaning that Al-Hilal, which had already clinched a place in the knockout stages due to previous results, would be unable to defend its title.

“All matches played by Al-Hilal, who named only 11 players, are considered null and void according to Article 6 of the AFC Champions League regulations and therefore Pakhtakor of Uzbekistan and Shabab Al Ahli Dubai have progressed to the Round of 16 from Group B,” the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said in a statement.

Al-Hilal requested that the game be postponed to allow players to recover.

“We only have 11 players before the match, including three goalkeepers,” Al-Hilal coach Roman Lazvan said. “In Europe, there are clear instructions to cancel or postpone matches in such circumstances.”

The request was denied.

The AFC said “a postponement would have a huge negative impact on the current match schedule of the AFC Champions League (West) and so no exception was granted.”

The competition was postponed in March but the western half of the continent restarted play this month. However, a new outbreak meant that Al-Wahda of the United Arab Emirates was unable to travel to Qatar, the regional hub and host of the west zone’s games.

The eastern zone restarts on Nov. 15. The final between the winners of the two zones is scheduled to take place on Dec. 19.