was preceded by booing the Qatari national anthem. The two countries had had a hostile relationship and had cut diplomatic ties due to the ongoing diplomatic crisis. Qatar won 4–0 despite the events, reaching their first Asian Cup final. Afterwards, the AFC declared that it would conduct an investigation into the proceedings. Qatar player eligibility On 30 January 2019, soon after the hosts lost to Qatar in the semi-finals, the United Arab Emirates Football Association lodged a formal appeal to the AFC over the eligibility of Sudanese-born Almoez Ali and Iraqi-born Bassam Al-Rawi, claiming that they did not qualify to play for Qatar on residency grounds per Article 7 of the Regulations Governing the Application of the FIFA statutes, which states a player is eligible to play for a representative team if he has "lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant association". It was alleged that Ali and Al-Rawi had not lived continuously in Qatar for at least five years over the age of 18, although the players claimed that their mothers were born in Qatar. Only hours prior to the start of the final on 1 February 2019, the AFC Disciplinary and Ethics Committee announced that it had dismissed the protest lodged by the UAEFA. Qatar football shirt fan incident A British-Sudanese football fan claimed that he was beaten and arrested for wearing a Qatari shirt to a match in which Qatar were playing and then, after reporting to the police, arrested and accused of wasting police time and making false statements of being assaulted. In an interview with Sky News, he claimed he was beaten, starved, and deprived of sleep by the police for wearing a Qatar shirt. The fan claims were denied by UAE authorities who stated that he was arrested for wasting police time and making false assault claims to the police. "The police took him to hospital where a doctor who examined him concluded that his injuries were inconsistent with his account of events and appeared to be self-inflicted," The government said. The police claimed that the fan had admitted to making false statements and his offense will be processed through the courts. An official in the UAE embassy in London stated “He was categorically not arrested for wearing a Qatar football shirt. This is instead an instance of a person seeking media