Soccer suspension angers officials

Press, 2 May 1985, Page 8

Soccer suspension angers officials

The one-match suspension imposed by the Canterbury Football Association’s judicial committee on the Christchurch Brother United player, Marcel Verweij, has angered officials of the Rothmans League club. Verweij was sent off in a pre-season friendly match between the United reserve team and Western after striking an opponent. The referee of the match was an official of the Western club.

The C.F.A.’s judicial committee imposed the suspension after receiving a report from the referee.

The United chairman, Alex Fox, claimed that the C.F.A. had “made a decision without having the full facts” of the matter.

“The player should be entitled to be heard,” he added. “It seems to me they didn’t give the player a chance to put the mitigating circumstances, which are important in reaching a decision. I feel an injustice has been done.”

The United coach, Mr Laurie Blyth, who was at the match, was "highly disappointed at the attitude shown by the

official who was refereeing.” He conceded that there seems to be “nothing we can do about

Peter Donnelly, the chairman of the C.F.A.’s judicial committee, said a one-game suspension was automatically imposed for specific serious offences, regardless of the nature of the match or whether an official referee was in charge. The association is under no obligation to inform the club of an impending judicial penalty, he added. The only time a player would become involved is when he reaches 20 penalty points, at which stage a lengthier suspension is brought in. Mr Donnelly said “five or six” similar cases are pending. They will be handled in exactly the same way as was the Verweij case. “We have to go by the rules,” he added. Verweij, who scored the second goal in United’s 2-0 win over 4XO Dunedin City last week-end, will miss the national league match against University Cowan in Auckland on Sunday.