Bouchard and Haitala suspended from playing until further notice – New Algeria

The Disciplinary Committee of the National Professional Football League decided, yesterday evening, Monday, to suspend the defender of the CS Belouizdad team, Sofiane Bouchard, and the striker of ES Setif, Ramadan Haitala, until the investigation into their cases is completed.

The two players fought with fists and exchanged insults after the end of the match between their two teams, last Thursday, at the “July 5, 1962” Olympic Stadium, in Algiers, for the 22nd round of the national professional football championship.

The quarrel occurred in front of television cameras, so that the match was broadcast live. Millions of viewers followed it, which gave a bad image of the two teams and of Algerian football in general.

And I witnessed the match Sofiane Bouchard was sent off with a red card in the 90th minute + 2. This was after receiving a second warning, due to his assault with a “slap” on Ramadan Haitala inside the operations area, in front of the referee.

However, the referee did not see the footage of Haitala attacking Bouchard, which was filmed by the cameras, so that it appeared that the ES Setif player was the first to attack by pushing Sofiane Bouchard. He also did not see Haitala kicking his opponent, in reaction to receiving the slap.

When the referee blew the whistle at the end of the match, the field witnessed a boxing duel between the two players. This was before some of their colleagues intervened to break up the clash.

Severe penalties await Bouchard and Haitalah

The National Professional Football League announced statementSohra published yesterday, Monday, on its official website, that its Disciplinary Committee decided to punish Sofiane Bouchard with a fine of 100,000 Algerian dinars. This is due to protesting the referee’s decision (upon receiving the red card) and suspending him from playing until the end of the investigation.

The Disciplinary Committee also punished Ramadan Haitala, until he is heard during a session on April 15th.

The match ended with CS Belouizdad winning by two goals to one. Cameroonian Lionel Wamba opened the scoring for the Al-Shabab team in the 52nd minute. Then his colleague Mohamed Islam Belkheir added the second goal in the 53rd minute. This was before ES Setif reduced the score in stoppage time of the match, with a penalty kick executed by Mohamed Benoucha twice (90+4 minutes).