Soccer Extreme : Asian football's governing body said on Saturday it had received a protest letter from Japan over a red card controversy but insisted the referee's decision was final.Japan are seething about the sending off of goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima in their 2-1 win over Syria at the Asian Cup.
Iranian referee Torky Mohsen gave Kawashima his marching orders for bringing down Sanharib Malki despite the player being flagged offside.
The referee insisted Malki was not offside because the ball was played back to the goalkeeper by a Japanese defender.
The Asian Football Confederation's tournament director Tokuaki Suzuki said the matter would not go to their disciplinary committee because "it is a matter of a pure refereeing decision".
He said only refereeing decisions involving cases of misidentification of players could be referred to the committee for review.
"I would like to stress that a referee decision is final."
Kawashima has been banned from Japan's coming match against Saudi Arabia on Monday.
Other players not eligible for the next round of matches include China's Qu Bo (two yellow cards in two different matches), Kuwait's Mesaed Nada (two-match suspension) and Bahrain's Faozi Aish (one match-suspension after two yellow cards in one match.
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