The Suspension of the Suspension

I always believed that the Vukovic suspension was overly harsh, the punishment in no way fitted the crime but the FFA’s latest about face on this matter is ludicrous in the extreme. In the last few years the FFA has made some giant strides in its professionalism, its a pity with this action they just took a massive leap backwards.

For those not up with the latest Vukovic will now have his suspension lifted for a period of time (from 25/06/2008 – 28/08/2008) effectively granting him the ability to compete in the Olympics,

There is no doubt that the FFA when applying their original punishment wanted to send a clear message to all players that manhandling of referees would not be tolerated and due to the fact that incident came at the end of the A-League year they applied a ban that would see him miss half of the 2008-9 A-League season. When you look at the ban in this context it seems reasonable (Approx. 10 weeks).

In a non-Olympic year or if Vukovic had of been over 23 and ineligible for the Olympics that would have been the end of it. The player would have served the ban and FFA would have been secure in the knowledge that all players understood the ramifications of their actions. But that was not the case and there was a strong element that Vukovic was being unfairly treated.

With the reduction to the suspension now in place Danny Vukovic will serve an approx. four match ban. That is right, in effect the only matches he will miss will be some Olyroos warm up matches and the first four A-League matches of the coming season. What kind of message does this send to young players. Oh we will come down hard on you but if you appeal enough we will wipe away 90% of the penalty.

The FFA are now a laughing stock, whether the original penalty was overly harsh is beside the point, they needed to stand their ground here and show some backbone. Instead they now look weak and have sent mixed messages to the wider player base.