We lost the match to SAFF's midnight email, Sri Lanka coach Mutairi erupts after 4-0 defeat and says he will not coach in SAFF again

After losing 4-0 to Bangladesh in the SAFF Championship and being eliminated from the tournament, Sri Lanka head coach Abdullah Al Mutairi made explosive allegations against SAFF at the post-match press conference. Sri Lanka needed a draw in the final group match to reach the semi-finals, but lost by four goals and went out. Mutairi claimed his team had mentally lost the match to an email sent at midnight the day before they faced Bangladesh.

At the press conference Mutairi first congratulated Bangladesh on the victory. He then held up his mobile phone and said he had been given a notice at midnight. In his words, even his wife does not call him at midnight, yet SAFF sent him a letter at midnight.

Mutairi alleged that on the night before the match, when his team was supposed to be resting in peace, Tanzim Ahmed Khan, head of SAFF's legal department, sent him an email at exactly midnight. He claimed the email threatened him with a six-month ban and a 10,000 dollar fine for the 'offence' of criticising the refereeing and asking for VAR.

After the Bhutan-Sri Lanka match, Mutairi had strongly criticised the refereeing and SAFF. It was said at the press conference that SAFF legal officer Tanzim sent him the letter in that context. Throughout the press conference Mutairi named this legal officer repeatedly.

Expressing intense anger, the Kuwaiti coach said: 'Mind game! Congratulations Tanzim, you are doing a wonderful job. Why did you send the email at midnight, could you not wait until 9 in the morning? What was the hurry? Even my wife does not speak to me at midnight.' He described such behaviour by a Bangladeshi official before a crucial match against the host country as a 'dirty trick'. He admitted that from the moment he received that email he knew his team was going to lose.

Mutairi also criticised what he called the double standards of SAFF officials. Referring to the 2023 SAFF, he said that when India's coach received a red card in the Pakistan match, SAFF did not want to punish him. He is European, India's coach, who would stop him — he asked. He said that even though India's coach fought with Kuwait's players in the third match, SAFF fined him only 500 dollars. Yet, he alleged, he is being sent messages that he will be banned for six months or a year, and he asked whether they could have stopped him if he were a European.

Defending himself, Mutairi said: did he hit any Bhutan player, did he say anything aggressive about the referee or SAFF — even so, why would he be given a letter at midnight?

Mutairi also raised his old grievance from the 2021 SAFF. That year SAFF was held in the Maldives, and although the Maldives played the final he could not be in the dugout. He said SAFF has always treated him this way, that in 2021 he was given cards multiple times and lost the right to be in the final. At the press conference he challenged: if a single clause can be found in the competition rules saying an official can be banned for receiving two yellow cards, he will quit football coaching.

Addressing Tanzim directly, Mutairi said many congratulations, but when he and Tanzim stand face to face before Allah on the field of resurrection, where will Tanzim flee — and he said in Arabic that on the Day of Resurrection he will complain against Tanzim in Allah's court. He commented that although Tanzim has much power, one day he will be judged by Allah.

Mutairi also threatened to leak all of SAFF's evidence on social media within the next few hours.

Before SAFF began, Mutairi had praised Bangladesh's Farhan Ali Wahid, saying Farhan would become South Asia's best footballer within the next ten years. After the match, asked about Farhan's goal, he said Farhan's goal was extraordinary and that he had taken Farhan's jersey. As he got up to leave the press conference he said he will not coach in SAFF again. He commented that SAFF is in a way racist, especially towards the Arab region.

Mutairi has been coaching in South Asia for the past few years. He is known to have also received a red card in another match at the Kings Arena in Dhaka. Before ending the press conference, his message to SAFF officials was that if SAFF really wants the development of football, they have only one job to do — just play the football, simply football.