FOOTBALL Federation Victoria’s appeals board described punishments applied to Fortuna 60 over an incident of parent violence as “manifestly excessive” in handing down a significantly reduced penalty to the Gippsland Soccer League club last Wednesday.
Fortuna was recently issued a $2500 fine and suspended from the opening three rounds of the 2014 GSL central competition across the grades, except small-sided juniors, by an independent league tribunal after a parent assaulted the club’s under 14 coach following a fixture in August.
The appeals board reduced Fortuna’s fine to $1000 and repealed the club-wide suspension, opting to deduct three points only from the junior team related to the episode.
The board agreed “the bad behaviour of one person ought not to imperil” the club’s other teams and saw merit in Fortuna’s submission the incident was “unprovoked and… could not reasonably have been foreseen nor could preventative measures have been taken to avert it”.
Fortuna 60 president Dion Tanti welcomed the determination but lambasted the GSL’s independent tribunal for its initial handling of the case and the original penalty.
“Our reputation has suffered a serious blow, unfairly, as a result of the original finding and the club has sustained a great deal of damage in the process, including the cost associated with having to defend such an unreasonable penalty,” Mr Tanti said.
“The appeals board findings showed that initial claims made against Fortuna by the GSL were clearly incorrect. This also raises serious questions as to how the basis of the original decision could have been so wrong.”
Mr Tanti called for an overhaul of GSL disciplinary processes and requested a formal apology from the league for supplying the tribunal with a list of past misdemeanours, allegedly used to help formulate the severe sentence, which he deemed irrelevant to the case.
“We believe the appeals board decision indicates the GSL’s existing processes for managing disciplinary matters are inherently flawed and we want to see a review, in consultation with all GSL clubs, as a matter of priority,” he said.
Fortuna was originally charged by the GSL under MP5 with failing to control one of its club associates.
Mr Tanti was called as a witness at the appeals hearing, and provided evidence that Fortuna had not been dealt with for any contravention of MP5 previously in this calendar year.
The appeals board report stated it placed weight on this evidence and the fact “the tribunal below failed to separate the penalty imposed on the club as a whole from the behaviour of” the perpetrator.
However, in accordance with FFV’s hardline policy on violence, the appeals board said it could not ignore that violence had been admitted and elected not to withdraw all charges.
“Even though we welcomed the board’s finding we really wanted to see all charges completely dropped but, in the circumstances, we accept the significantly reduced penalty handed down to us and are very happy that the real truth had been heard and recognised,” Mr Tanti said.
The Fortuna affiliate at the heart of the issue received a ‘life ban’ of five years from the club and the GSL prior to the original tribunal hearing.
Calls by The Express to the GSL were not returned at the time of going to print.
sdarroch@lvexpress.com.au
