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That’s right, as if losing to Newcastle in such a controversial way wasn’t enough, the FFA has laid down a 15 month ban (9 months + 6 month probation) to Mariners Goal Keeper Danny Vokovic.

What started as an appeal to a deliberate hand ball by James Holland soon turned into a heated debate between both teams and the referee (Mark Shields). Danny, for whatever reason appeared to “high five” the ref and then run off the field as he knew the red card was coming.

It turns out today that the FFA have decided to throw the book at Vokovic (except the whole life ban part) and are still considering banning him from participating in any other form of professional football (including his Olympic Campaign at Beijing 2008). If past events had of been used to predict an outcome you would have expected a few week ban and possibly a 12 month probation period, this is further backed up by the case where Jets player Joel Griffith’s intentionally “whacked” a linesman in the “family jewels” and got off scott free on a technicality.

And that’s not all, the FFA have now said that Sasho Petrovski will have to face the disciplinary committee for “using an abusive gesture towards a match official during Sunday’s controversial grand final” AND that the Central Coast Mariners FC are being “[asked] to
show cause why the Club should not also be sanctioned under the FFA
National Disciplinary Regulations for team misconduct. “.

Now I do understand that I am probably a little biased when it comes to the Mariners, but where is the justice? Where is the disciplinary committee for under performing and over sensitive referee’s (aka Mark Shields, Matther Breeze, etc etc)? Where is the match review committee for blatantly wrong calls? When are the FFA going to get it right? When is FIFA/Someone going to step in and put a stop to the mess that the FFA are making of football in Australia?

It is a given that we really didn’t deserve to win on Sunday night, but what we did deserve was a fair game and a quality referee for such a high profile match, I mean it was the Grand Final after all!

Well thats my little rant, I am sure you will hear more if anything is handed down to Sasho or CCMFC in general.

For now I suggest you head on over to the Marinators forum and have a bit of a read. Also I suggest that anyone who can, please send an email to the FFA (info@footballaustralia.com.au) expressing your disgust in the general state of Australian Football and its Referees.

You can also read the full article over at Sportal.

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Hello,

My name is Dean and I am a Marinerholic…

If you don’t know who the Central Coast Mariners are then I will give you a quick intro, the Mariners are a football (aka. Soccer) team located on NSW’s sunny Central Coast. They play in the Australian Hyundai A-League and have so far won one Minor Premiership and have been the only club to make it to the Grand Final twice (2005-06 Season and 2007-08 Season). Their home ground is Bluetongue Central Coast Stadium, with Bluetongue Brewery as a major sponsor.

The 2005-06 Season was the first for the Hyundai A-League and unfortunately we lost to Sydney FC (aka. Bling or Glamour Club) 1-0.

The 2007-08 Season started off with a bang as the Mariners stayed undefeated for 5 rounds putting us well ahead, by the end of the regular season it was a nail-biting 90 minutes between Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory (ended up going 2-2 in our favour) and then a gut-retching 90 minutes watching the Adelaide United vs Queensland Roar game (2-0 in our favour). Those two great outcomes meant that the Mariners were the 2007-08 Minor Premieres and were going to compete in the 2009-10 Asian Championship League.

After battling against all odds in the Final Series we managed to claw our way to the top again to take the Major Semi Final against the Newcastle Jets (aka. Scum) 3-0 in extra time.

So where does that leave us now? Well it leaves me on a Coach tomorrow heading down to Sydney Football Stadium for the Hyundai A-League 2007-08 Grand Final against the Newcastle Jets. The beer (unfortunately not Blue Tongue) will be flowing and our chants will be emanating from the SFS throughout the streets of Sydney.

So for now we wait, we wait to see if the Mariners will take the long awaited and well deserved title of A-League Premieres and stick it to the scummy Jets.

Thanks,
-Dean

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