Doha, Oct 23 (IANS): Abdelkarim Hassan, Asia's reigning player of the year, has been handed a five-month suspension after he confronted a referee in the Asian Champions League semifinals.

According to a report in Fox Sports, the left-back, who won AFC Asian Cup 2019 with Qatar earlier this year, reacted aggressively after being shown a yellow card for a foul in the first half of Al Sadd's 1-4 first-leg loss to Saudi club Al-Hilal in Doha on October 1.

He was sent off in the 35th minute of the game and now the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has issued him a five-month suspension ban for "an act of violent conduct against a match official" after aggressively remonstrating with referee Ahmed Al-Kaf.

With the suspension commencing on October 21, the 26-year-old will not be able to feature in AFC club competitions until March 2020, which means he will miss half of next season's ACL group stage with Al Sadd having already qualified.

Hassan won the AFC's 2018 award as the best player based in Asia.