Mandated penalty ignored

 

September 12 2008

Shepparton News

Stuart Vance will play in the North Eastern Soccer League this weekend despite the Shepparton forward being found guilty of striking at a two-hour tribunal last night.

Instead of Vance receiving an automatic suspension (served last week) and an additional two games as mandated by Football Federation Victoria incident grading, Vance was given ``auto week only'' by the tribunal.

It leaves the league-leading 26-goal forward free to play against Shepparton United in the men's preliminary final at McEwen Reserve on Sunday.

Vance and Cobram's Ahmed Al-Mugotir had been charged with striking each other after a brawl in round 20.

Tribunal chairman Gordon Porter said it would not have been justice for Vance to serve the mandated penalty.

The tribunal deferred to the North Eastern league constitution rather than the FFV's incident grading chart to make the ruling.

Vance argued last week to the tribunal his role in the brawl was to come to the assistance of 16-year-old teammate Papi Mukasa after the forward was felled behind play.

Shepparton captain Johnny Davkovski told the tribunal last night that Mukasa was attacked in a three-on-one ambush before Vance came to his aid.

Central referee Nick Mete and assistant Greg Anderson both told the tribunal Vance and Al-Mugotir had struck each other a number of times as they broke away from where players had congregated in a brawl.

However, both referees said Vance's punches had been thrown in self defence.

Al-Mugotir, who did not front the tribunal and was not represented by his club, was also found guilty and given his automatic suspension plus four additional games, and a $220 fine.

``We do find you guilty of striking (Al-Mugotir),'' Porter said to Vance.

``(Al-Mugotir) was going hell for leather and you were the person that was in his path.

``You have tried to back out of it and get away, but ultimately with all those punches coming at you, you have ended up defending yourself and punching back.

``It is against the rules to strike back, but it's clear that it was self-defence and clear there was no malice.

``The rules say we are to have given you another two weeks, but the tribunal has unanimously found that it would not be justice given the predicament you found yourself in.''

Vance served his automatic suspension by missing Shepparton's 4-1 loss on penalties in the qualifying final against Cobram Victory last week.