United lashes FFA after three match ban upheld
Adelaide United have lashed the A-League’s “archaic” match review panel process after utility Iacopo La Rocca’s three-game suspension for violent conduct was upheld by Football Federation Australia’s independent disciplinary committee.
Chairman Greg Griffin said the decision reflected “but a small part of our general dissatisfaction with the MRP process”, which “does not go anywhere near meeting contemporary standards and expectations of the key parties – the players and the clubs”.
Griffin, a prominent Adelaide lawyer, this week told InDaily he hoped the appointment of District Court Judge Rauf Soulio to an appeals panel for banned supporters would herald a new era of “procedural fairness” throughout the FFA, “in terms of how it deals with all disputes”, and “not just in respect of the yobbo who lets off a flare or throws a bottle”.
But writing on the club’s website today, Griffin lamented the process by which La Rocca’s appeal was conducted.
“As it stands, a player is charged, given a very short period of time in which to file a written response and then his guilt or innocence is determined by three persons appointed by the FFA without the player or his employer, the Club, being given the right to be heard or to call valuable evidence,” he wrote.
“To exacerbate the clear denial of natural justice to the player… when he determines to appeal the outcome the rules prohibit the appeal body from dealing with the issue of guilt, but restricts the hearing to what is the appropriate match penalty…
“The concept of following relevant precedent, a cornerstone of Westminster law, has apparently been removed from any FFA constituted appeal tribunal.”
United will not appeal La Rocca’s ban, with Griffin arguing: “We are just wasting our time and resources in appealing.”
“La Rocca should never have been convicted in our view, let alone suspended for three weeks… other players who received much lower penalties for acts that were far more violent, deliberate, and caused harm to others must feel very fortunate,” Griffin wrote.
He said the club, “as it always does”, would accept the sanction, but would call for an “urgent” A-League chairmen’s meeting “to demand that these MRP Regulations be the subject of an immediate review”.
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“The yobbo in the crowd that throws a bottle or lets off a flare has now better rights of representation and natural justice before any FFA convened tribunal than does a player charged with an offence by the MRP or the club which has invested many millions of dollars in putting a team together to attempt to win the Hyundai A-League Championship,” he said.
The Reds had pushed La Rocca’s case to the committee via video link on Tuesday night for his stray elbow on Sydney FC striker Matt Simon during the 2-2 draw at Coopers Stadium on February 5, in a ground-level off-the-ball incident missed by the referee.
But the committee determined the Italian import must still serve the three-match sanction originally proposed last week by the A-League’s match review panel.
-with AAP
