The Asian Football Confederation has announced its appeals committee has dismissed, in full, an appeal by Al Hilal against a sanction imposed for crowd misconduct in an ACL round of 16 second-leg game against Persepolis on 26 May.
Al Hilal will now be forced to play without any spectators when it hosts the first leg of its quarter-final match with Lekhwiya on 25 August.
The AFC had issued a suspended penalty against Al Hilal for crowd misbehaviour in the second leg of last year's final against Wanderers, in November.
Wanderers drew that game 0-0 away and won the title 1-0 on aggregate after its home win the previous week.
The biggest drama out of the game involved Al Hilal's AFC player of the year Nasser Al-Shamrani headbutting Wanderers defender Matthew Spiranovic during the game and then spitting at him in a nasty aftermatch to the match.
Al-Shamrani was suspended for eight games - a penalty that was subsequently reduced to six games on appeal.
But Al Hilal had also been ordered to play one game without spectators should it re-offend with crowd misbehaviour within one year and the club wasn't able to last that long without its fans misbehaving again.
The AFC announced Al Hilal had breached Article 67 of the AFC Disciplinary Code: Liability for spectator conduct.
The breaches in the home game against Persepolis were detailed as "throwing of missiles at opponent officials at start of match, at half time entry, and when opponent player was sent off".
The sanction was listed as "fine of 7,500USD and next match in AFC club competitions, i.e. the club’s ACL quarter-final match, played without spectators (as a result of suspended sanction from match played on November 1, 2014)".
Presumably, any further instances of crowd misbehaviour during the ACL tournament would be at the risk of the club being hit with an even bigger sanction.
Al Hilal and Lekhwiya each finished top of their respective groups in this year's ACL. Wanderers narrowly failed to advance from the group stage.
Lekhwiya progressed from the round of 16 with a 4-3 aggregate against Al Sadd across the two games. Al Hilal made it through 3-1 on aggregate against Persepolis.
But now Al Hilal will have to look for a positive result in the first leg of its quarter-final without crowd support before Lekhwiya hosts the return leg on 15 September.
