AP: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — About 150 athletes, coaches and referees have been suspended from their local clubs as part of wide-ranging crackdown on anti-government dissent in Bahrain, an athletics official said Monday.
A committee formed last week has been examining the role athletes played in the protests which began Feb. 14, examining photographs and other evidence, the official told the Associated Press. The committee, chaired by Sheik Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, the general secretary of the Bahrain Football Federation, has suspended those who were determined to have taken part, he said, adding that it was part of a wide-ranging investigation that involves all sport clubs on the Gulf island nation, he said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
The official said that as of Sunday, the 150 who had been suspended did not include any Olympic athletes and were mostly from local basketball, handball and football clubs. They include four members of the national football team who are all Shiite — brothers Alaa and Mohammed Hubail, Abbas Ayaad and Mohamad Sayed Adnan.
