Pearce hits out at double standards in China

Manchester City manager Stuart Pearce will be keeping an eye out for a mysterious ‘man in black’ ahead of his team’s friendly encounter with Japanese side Kashima Antlers in Shanghai tomorrow.

Pearce was left puzzled by the intervention of the unidentified local official during his side’s 1-0 win over Shanghai Shenhua when he prevented Frenchman Antoine Sibierski from taking to the field for wearing a wristband.

“Antoine Sibierski has a cloth around his wrist that he has worn for years and years,” said Pearce.

After taping his ring up and taping his bangle up, the fourth official and another gentleman – and we’re not quite sure who he is - decided he couldn’t enter the field of play.

“After we questioned this on several occasions he still was adamant that the player was not going to come onto the field of play. So we’ve either got to have it surgically removed by Sunday or have to send him home. He won’t be able to play the game.”

Pearce was quick to point out that a double standard had been in operation and that the majority of the Shanghai team – who meet Atletico Madrid on Sunday - were allowed to wear similar adornments on their wrists and were not prevented from playing.

“One of my keen-eyed coaches happened to notice that seven of the Shenhua players also had the same bangle on their wrist, so obviously they’ll be taking no part in the game on Sunday as well unless they have theirs removed,” he said.

“It will be interesting to see if they are removed and our player – and we’ll have to clarify the rules by Sunday – will play or not.”

Most perplexing for Pearce was the involvement of the mystery man on the sidelines, who claimed to be a FIFA refereeing assessor and, while the manager took the incident in good humour, he was disappointed at the knock-on effect it could have on his pre-season preparations.

“I don’t think the referee had a lot to do with it,” he said. “It was the fourth official and the ‘man in black’ who appeared from nowhere.

“We’re not actually too sure who he is at this stage. Certainly I think if the man in black is here on Sunday, Antoine won’t be able to get on the field of play and seven of the Shenhua players will struggle to get on the field of play on Sunday as well.

“For a pre-season friendly it’s probably not what you want. Going down to 10 men and not being able to use one of your substitutes makes it very difficult, all jokes aside.

“It was very disappointing for me and if we have lost a player through injury because we couldn’t get Antoine on the pitch. That would be crazy.”

City will go into Sunday’s game against the four-time J League champions with a number of injury concerns.

Sylvain Distin will undergo a fitness test on the morning of the game to determine whether he has recovered sufficiently from a hamstring injury to start against Kashima while there are also doubts over the availability of Micah Richards, Stephen Jordan and Dietmar Hamann.

Sun Jihai trained today and could feature in front of his compatriots while Ben Thatcher will take no part in the game after earning a suspension with his sending-off in the win over Shanghai.