The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has suspended Stevica Ristić six games for his involvement in a brawl during the Suwon vs. Al-Sadd game in the AFC Champions League.

The AFC disciplinary committee reviewed the footage of the incident and decided to hand out a six game suspension for Macedonian international Stevica Ristić.  The brawl occurred during the first leg of the semi-final matchup between Suwon and Al-Sadd on 19 October in the AFC Champions League.  The Suwon players were livid after Al-Sadd scored a goal while a Suwon player was injured.  That resulted in a huge brawl between the two teams.  It seemed every player was involved in the fight but the referee somehow singled out only two players, one of them being Stevica Ristić who was shown a red card.

Suwon was eventually eliminated from the AFC Champions League by losing 2:1 on aggregate against Al-Sadd over the two games.  Ristić missed the return leg in Qatar because of the red card suspension.  Since the six game suspension was handed out today, that means Ristić will miss those six games next season.  The reason for that is because the league season in South Korea just finished this past weekend so the suspension will carry into next season.  A Suwon assistant coach was also handed a six game suspension by the AFC.

It remains to be seen whether Stevica Ristić will be summoned by Macedonian manager John Toshack for the upcoming friendly against Albania on 15 November in Prilep.  In the past, there was a policy by FFM that suspended players would not be called up to the senior national team.  However, this suspension was enforced by Asia’s football body and not UEFA so Stevica Ristić might still be included in the Macedonian squad by Toshack.