Japanese Footballer Still Fighting “Garlic Ban”

Japan is arguably the wackiest corner of the football world right now. Don’t believe me? Did you not read about the J-League underwear thief?

And if you need more Japanese wackiness, then how about the case of Kazuki Ganaha? The Kawasaki Frontale striker is currently waiting on the Court of Arbitration for Sport to clear his name as a drugs cheat. His crime? Taking garlic infusions to combat a bout of flu. Not exactly performance enhancing (although it probably made Ganaha rather unpleasant to mark) but J-League rules forbid all infusions, so Ganaha received a six game ban last year. Apparently his legal costs are mounting, and he’s already spent $100,000 trying to get the phrase “garlic cheat” expunged from his record.

Still not enough? How about the stories that J-League referee told a player to “die” during Tuesday’s FC Tokyo vs Oita Trinita game? Apparently, when Oita Trinita’s Taikai Uemoto asked referee Yuichi Nishimura why he hadn’t booked a Tokyo player for a foul, Nishimura responded with “Shut up! You keep quiet and get on with the game. Die!”

The Japanese FA have mulled the incident over and responded with this bizarrely contradictory statement:

“We are not trying to deny what was heard,” JFA general secretary Kozo Tashima told reporters. “We have decided that (the referee) did not use those words.”

Glad that’s settled then.

But at least all this insanity has an upside. Maybe in some small way, the innovatively odd goings on of the J-League contribute to players like Daisuke Matsui doing incredible things like this.

Category: Asia

Tags: Asia, die, FC Tokyo, garlic, infusion, J-League, Japan, Kawasaki Frontale, Kazuki Ganaha, Oita Trinita, referee, Taikai Uemoto, World Football, World Soccer, Yuichi Nishimura

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