Fabiano Banned For Nine Matches

[Guns of Melbourne]

I am completely dumbfounded.

MELBOURNE Victory new recruit Ney Fabiano has been banned for nine matches after his spit spat last weekend against Adelaide United.
Fabiano was dismissed after he appeared to spit at United defender Robert Cornthwaite.

Victory tried to have the case dismissed before it was even heard but their appeal was rejected by the FFA.

The match review panel looked at the case and passed it on to the independent disciplinary committee which convened in Sydney tonight to consider the case.

The group - John Marshall SC (Chairman), Danny Moulis and Milan Blagojevic - came back with a decision to ban Fabiano for eight games on top of his existing one match ban for the initial red card.

An FFA statement added: "The committee found that the offence of spitting at a player was established and has imposed a sanction of eight matches over and above the mandatory match suspension, giving a total sanction of nine matches."

Fabiano will be eligible for the December 6 clash against Perth Glory.

 

[RADINHO]

What a loss a player of his calibre banned for nine games. See you in December Ney

 

[Sym]

Why are you dumbfounded ?
spitting at someone is disgusting and unwarranted

 

[marinersman]

I'm sorry he won't be playing in the HAL for nine weeks because he is a damn good player but the suspension is about right for mine.

 

[Guns of Melbourne]

I fail to understand to see how the suspension is "about right"

Please explain the process to me behind the mindset of rubbing out a player for just short of half a season.

 

[Marquee]

He spat at a player. It's totally unacceptable and the punishment is just, no matter matter how good he is or how short the season is. At the professional level, you cant go around spiting at people.

 

[marinersman]

What don't you understand? He was found guilty of spitting at a player.

I think most would agree it's one of the lowest acts you can commit on a pitch or anywhere, actually. As Slater said last night, he would rather be punched than spat at and I agree 100%. That sort of disgusting behavior has to be heavily punished and I thing 8+1 is the right length.

What do you think is a fair penalty for spitting?

 

[Guns of Melbourne]

What don't you understand? He was found guilty of spitting at a player.

I think most would agree it's one of the lowest acts you can commit on a pitch or anywhere, actually. As Slater said last night, he would rather be punched than spat at and I agree 100%. That sort of disgusting behavior has to be heavily punished and I thing 8+1 is the right length.

What do you think is a fair penalty for spitting?

The disciplinary committee has not concluded that Fabiano intentionally spat at Cornthwaite; merely that he "appeared" to spit in his direction. Semantics, maybe, but it is intentionally worded that way and it will be interesting to see the details that come out over the coming days.

I recall some thunder and lightning plaudits from the FFA about correcting wrongs and building consistency etc.

When considering a suspension, surely it's important to also consider-
[list type=decimal]
[*]The length of the league the player is currently playing in
[*]Similar incidents and subsequent resolutions
[*]Former world body precedents
[/list]

They have suspended him for close to 50% of the regular season.

• Vukovic could be used as an example. He aggressively laid hands on a referee and is unable to play for his club for five weeks.
• Joel Griffiths hits an assistant referee in the genitals - arguably more of a "dog act" than spitting in someone's face. A yellow card is issued and no punishment delivered.
• Dino Djulbic spits in the direction of the referee and makes several unmentionable comments. 5 weeks.
• Danny Tiatto spear tackles Daniel Piorkowski, busting his shoulder and ending his season. No action taken.
• John Aloisi goes into a 50-50 header with elbows raised and connects with Daniel Piorkowski's face. No action taken. Similar action with Kevin Muscat against Paul Agostino, yellow given, no further action.
• Bosnich as the last defender, takes down a Queensland player without the ball. Penalty against, no card issued. Comment from Andy Harper "I thought no player was bigger than the game", comment from Michael Cockerill "He is".

That's not to mention the several high profile instances of spitting in European leagues, where players that were found guilty of intentionally spitting in the face of an opponent were punished with a red card plus three weeks.

Do you see what I am getting at? If anything, the FFA have worsened in consistency since declaring they were bringing the league up to speed.

 

[Sym]

Bozza explained why he didn't get a red
turns out he got the ball first but it hit the player and rebounded back
so yeah penalty but no card is warranted

 

[Demented Freak]

This has been coming for a long time. If the players of the A-League didn't get the message that there was a crackdown when Dino got 5 weeks, they sure as hell should get the message now.

Should Aloisi and Bozza get carded or suspended for their fouls? Possibly, but both incidents happened during the normal course of the game, bit like any bad tackle. Spitting on the other hand is a dog act, there is absolutely no justification for it and 9 weeks is a just punishment.

 

[Marinerchick]

o well now he will know not to spit
spitting is digusting and it shouldnt be tolerated at all
i find 9 weeks a bit harsh though.

 

[Bex]

@Guns of Melbourne

Yes, welcome to the world of Danny Vukovich supporters. By the way, you forgot to mention that Vukovich had his Olympic dream shattered; perhaps a once in a lifetime chance.

Of course, you can argue that the penalty seems excessive for what could be considered a trivial incident. Another comparison is Ufuk Talay's challenge on Dean Heffernan that broke Heff's leg and has effectively kept him off the pitch for nearly an entire year. Ufuk didn't even get a yellow card from memory (Warning: memory has been severely affected due to many years of self inflicted abuse).

I think if you take the Vukovich (slap ref's hand - 5 wks + olympics), Djulbic (spit on ground in direction of ref - 5 weeks) and Fabiano (spit in players face - 9 weeks) incidents, there is some consistancy in these rulings and they do happen to be the latest rulings. If we're going to end up with consistancy, then we probably need to keep past inconsistant decisions, like the sack whack, in the past. And I think derogatory actions towards referees and spitting in player's faces are always going to attract more of a penalty than dodgy tackles.

 

[Paolo]

@Guns of Melbourne

Yes, welcome to the world of Danny Vukovich supporters.

Imo being a Vukovic supporter would have been much worse

 

[Guns of Melbourne]

In the desire to not turn into one of those nasty rival team trolls, I think I'm going to leave the issue here. I still don't agree, I still think it's a joke and I am sure Melbourne will appeal and the sentence will be reduced.

 

[ponno]

as much as I hate to agree with a melbournian i think 9 games is way too many... seeing as Djulbic got 5 weeks I think the maximim should be a 6 game ban - the extra week for being a fool and spitting even after seeing Djulbic get 5 games....

 

[Bear]

Its not like he squared up to cornthwaite and spat a massive loogie into his face, so im calling harsh penalty. To me its just another case of the FFA taking things to far

 

[Ted]

Its not like he squared up to cornthwaite and spat a massive loogie into his face, so im calling harsh penalty. To me its just another case of the FFA taking things to far

Well the way things are headed, soon even trivial infringements will result in a season spent on the sideline.

 

[scottmac]

as much as I hate to agree with a melbournian i think 9 games is way too many... seeing as Djulbic got 5 weeks I think the maximim should be a 6 game ban - the extra week for being a fool and spitting even after seeing Djulbic get 5 games....

i agree, 9 games is way too much. All three of the bans mentioned above were way over the top. The FFA should be imposing fines with smaller sentences rather than penalising the club by removing their players.
A question - does Fabiano still get paid while out on suspension for that long a time? Should melbourne fine him?

 

[loyalist]

i feel this would be a fair ban in a league that was 38 games long but not in a 21 round competition

 

[Paolo]

as much as I hate to agree with a melbournian i think 9 games is way too many... seeing as Djulbic got 5 weeks I think the maximim should be a 6 game ban - the extra week for being a fool and spitting even after seeing Djulbic get 5 games....

i agree, 9 games is way too much. All three of the bans mentioned above were way over the top. The FFA should be imposing fines with smaller sentences rather than penalising the club by removing their players.
A question - does Fabiano still get paid while out on suspension for that long a time? Should melbourne fine him?

i highly doubt that considering they appealed his red card saying it was warranted