Off Of Footballer

Chronicle (Levin), 15 June 1949, Page 4

Off Of Footballer

The ordering off by a feferee of an Awahau player , during , the junior- match '-wi'.h Ath'etid5 ''on Saturday liad an unusual sequel.^at the Srieetirig of -the -maffaEgeriient .committee of th'e Horowhenua Rugby Union last night, when, af ter a let.er re'porting the incident 'had been feCeived and read,. the Horowhenua Referees' Associktion delegate, : Mr. J: A. Zuppicich, 'stated that it was the assoeiation's opinion that; the charge should be ' wi'Lhdrawh and. the playennot asked to appear. • Asked by the president/ Mr. R. L. Robihson, what had led to the as--sociation reaching such a decision; Mr. Zuppicich explained further thatl; both he and Mr. C. E. Wise'dy had been visiting the ground at the time of'the incident in-the course of their inspection of referees, and they were both of the opinion ■that the p'ayer should not have' bee'n ordered off. At the meeting of the referees' association afterwards, this opinion had been confirmed by :he association.. At a later stage in the subsequent 'discussion, Mr. Zuppicich said that the referee in question, Miv J. Kuiti, had had a reason for acting as he had done, but in-the opinion of Mr. Wiseley and himself the reason did not warrant the player being ordered off. A penalty kick wouid have sUfficed. He considered that in view of these facts a grave injustice had been done the Awahau team, as it had played for a major portion o'f the match with only 14 men, said Mr. R. Cochrane (Awahau) . He would move that if the game had any bearing on the result of the competition it be' replaye'd. • This provoked considerable discussion, the chairman, Mr. R. L. Robinsdn, stating that it would be establishing a dangerous precedent. After all, hpid the referees not been present and reported the cireumstances to the committee it woul-d -have taken action1 against the player, basing this action on the report of the' referee in charge of the game. As it was, -the player would not suffer further penalty. The club had his sympathy. After further discUssion it was decided that the player should not be called in to answer the ' charge and a motion by Mr. Cochrane for a replay of the game, if it was foun-d to have a bearin'g on the competitions, was lost.