Thai club's player provokes Chinese club on social media after football brawl

"I'm still here, just send me location," Ramil Sheydayev wrote on his Instagram on Thursday and tagged the official account of Zhejiang.

After Buriram's 2-3 defeat against Zhejiang in the AFC Champions League group stage game on Wednesday night, Sheydayev was chased and beaten by Zhejiang players.

The incident took place at Huzhou Olympics Sports Center Stadium in China. According to videos on social network X (formerly Twitter) and China’s Weibo, it started when some Buriram players argued with the reserved players of Zhejiang after the game ended.

Almost immediately, other Zhejiang players came pushing and created a brawl on the field. Many of them attacked Sheydayev and even when this player fell down, they continued to beat and kick him.

The brawl lasted over three minutes. Thailand national team player Theerathon Bunmathan of Buriram was accused by Chinese netizens as the one who started the brawl. They said this player is still salty that Thailand lost 1-2 to China at the recent 2026 World Cup qualifiers and took this chance to start a fight.

A screenshot of Ramil Sheydayev's story on Instagram on Nov. 30, 2023, showing a braw between his club Buriam United and China's Zhejiang FC in an AFC Champions League game the previous day.

Southeast Asian media outlets like ESPN FC or Malaysia’s VOCKET FC said Bunmathan was indeed involved in the brawl to protect his teammates. But later on Bunmathan helped cool down the situation by separating his teammates from the fight.

According to Thai newspaper Siam Sport, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) will investigate the incident and impose heavy fines on both teams. 

Sheydayev, 27, was born in Russia but decided to represent the Azerbaijan national team. He joined Buriram before this season for $1.31 million, playing 11 games, scoring one and assisting three goals.