Olyroos goalkeeper banned for striking official
Sunday, the Newcastle Jets defeated the Central Coast Mariners 1-0 in the Australian A-League grand final at the Sydney Football Stadium.
During the last minute of this match, Mariners goalkeeper Danny Vukovic was sent off for violent conduct after an altercation with head referee Mark Shield, who has been voted the top match official in the Australian A-League in both (2005/06 and 2006/07) seasons since its inception.
Vukovic appeared to strike referee Shield in the arm after he failed to call a handball on the Jets in the dying seconds that would have resulted in a penalty and, presumably, send the match into extra time. Striker John Aloisi was booked for dissent in the incident, but Vukovic was rightfully shown a straight red card.
Football Federation Australia (FFA) have given the Central Coast goalkeeper a fifteen month ban, with the last six suspended on a probationary basis, for his actions. This means that he will not participate in any A-League matches until the 24th of November, and will have an additional six month ban possible with any other misbehavior in the following year.
Vukovic is scheduled to join the Australian National Team at the Olympics this summer in Beijing, but may not be allowed to do so. The FFA is considering extending the ban to include national team duty, which would make him ineligible for all Australian football until the end of the first nine months of his ban.
When asked about the incident, Senior National Team (Socceroos) coach Pim Verbeek said: “It's stupid, there's no doubt about that. We can be honest about that. He should have never done that. I think that's one of the things players have to learn.”
“Hopefully he will learn from it and hopefully every player can learn from it because you can not accept things like that as a professional football player.”
However, the incident has not given Verbeek any cause to be concerned about the goalkeeper’s temperament.
“If he was 30 years old, I would say yes. But he's still young. He always wants to win. But there are limits.”
This is the longest ban handed down in the Australian A-League’s young history. Vukovic has a week to appeal and will most likely be absent from the Olyroos’ squad for their friendly match in San Francisco, California against Mexico next week.
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Liviu Bird
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