Theyab Awana stole the show in UAE’s 7-2 thrashing of Lebanon by scoring a cheeky penalty with his back heel. Awana ran backwards toward the spot and slotted the ball home from 12 yards pass the Lebanese keeper to make the scoreline 6-2. But his spot kick antics could herald trouble for him as his gesture was treated as disrespectful towards the opponents.

Though his offense was not particularly clear, Awana was shown a yellow card by the referee after he scored the penalty but the goal stood. The UAE manager Srecko Katanec was also not impressed by the action of Awana and substituted him just after the he took the penalty kick. He was at the pitch only for 10 minutes. UAE Manager said:

“This is not respect, Okay? I am unhappy. My reaction was normal – I took him out.”

UAE team manager Esmaeel Rashed is preparing to take action against Awana for his behavior. He said – “This should not have happened. I think what happened is disrespectful. We cannot accept anyone in our team who does not respect the opponent and does not respect the people who are working, or the supporters. There are many forms of punishment. We could send him away from the team or we could make him pay a fine.”

Awana is sorry for his actions. He said he didn’t do it intentionally or to show disrespect. The 21 year midfielder was full of remorse for his actions on the field and asked for an apology. Awana said:

“I did wrong. I made a mistake. Tell the team I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry I did this thing.”

But is this really worth a punishment? If a player uses his imagination and tries to do something new then does that mean he is showing disrespect? The beauty of a football match is that it throws unexpected events, moments of magic, personal brilliance. So why not the kid is being applauded but being forced to pay a fine? I would say it was a brilliant penalty and the Awana showed a lot of guts to step up and score a goal like that.

Tags: Football, Lebanon, Penalty, Theyab Awana, UAE