As the big guns flex their muscles at the Asian Cup, refereeing controversies are leaving players and coaches hopping mad with the tournament barely five days old.
Iran, Oman and holders Japan all raged at the officials after their opening games -- not the start Asian officials were hoping for after a determined drive to improve refereeing standards.
Iran coach Carlos Queiroz launched a withering attack on referee Ben Williams, accusing him of failing to keep a lid on Bahrain's "dangerous" tackling in Team Melli's 2-0 win at the weekend and claiming the Australian was out of his depth, despite the fact he officiated at last year's World Cup.
The red mist descended on Oman coach Paul Le Guen 24 hours earlier after the Gulf side were denied what appeared a nailed-on penalty in a 1-0 defeat by South Korea.
And Japan's spiky playmaker Keisuke Honda took aim at the man in the middle after Japan's 4-0 win over Palestine, asking whether Qatar's Abdulrahman Hussain had been refereeing a basketball game in comments dripping with sarcasm.
Despite the efforts of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to raise standards, Asian refereeing came under the spotlight at the 2014 World Cup when Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura awarded hosts Brazil a soft penalty in the opening game, triggering fury from opponents Croatia and lighting up social media.
Queiroz's ire centred on Bahrain's Faouzi Aaish, the team's snarling forward.
"He tried to elbow my players," the former Real Madrid coach told AFP. "As you know elbowing is dangerous. The laws of the game are clear. (The referee) didn't give a single yellow. The referee was not at the level of the game."
Source: AFP