Old Boys’ Fletcher Cup celebrations were short-lived as Dunedin City Royals lodged an appeal that appears to have been upheld by Southern Football resulting in the Royals leapfrogging Old Boys in the final league standings and the Fletcher Cup trophy looking for a one-way ticket back up state highway 1.
The Southland Express understands the appeal lodged by Royals centres around a Mosgiel player, registered in its Southern Premier League (SPL) side, regrading to Division One, the Fletcher Cup, for the final three games of the season.
Apparently, the player had been injured for the previous 11 weeks and was making his return via the Fletcher Cup team. This appears to be in breach of Southern Football rules, appendix 1, clause 5.8, that states no regrading can take place in the final three games of the season.
However, appendix 3 of the Southern Football rules, although stating the same rule about regrading, carries the caveat, "note this excludes premier graded players moving into Division 1''.
The caveat in appendix three doesn’t specify the SPL though, it merely states ‘premier graded players,’ which could cover SPL and Southern League players.
This is where it gets quite ambiguous. Old Boys president Nic Popham believes the appendix 3 ruling is quite clear and means there has been no breach by Mosgiel as the player regraded from the SPL to Division One for the final three games, which is permitted by the caveat.
The SPL ruling does not permit any regrading of players for the final three fixtures; however, it is not clear whether this refers to players outside of the SPL coming in for the last three games, or the regrading of any registered SPL player to another league.
If you read it as, ''no regrading of SPL players can take place'', then Mosgiel breached the ruling as, although the Fletcher Cup is a different competition, it took a player from a league who does not permit regrading, so the appendix 3 ruling does not come into effect.
However, if you take the view that the appendix 1 ruling only references the SPL competition, then it is superseded by appendix 3 and Mosgiel has committed no offence, and the result crowing Old Boys champions should stand.
Yep, it is as clear as mud. To see what the comparisons are, we looked at the Donald Gray competition. Queens Park AFC have a team in the SPL and the Donald Gray competition, which is equivalent to the Fletcher Cup.
In this case, Queens Park are not permitted to regrade SPL players in the final three fixtures, with Southland Football citing the appendix 1 Southern Football ruling. In this case, there does appear to be a precedent set, which would indicate the regrading from Mosgiel is in breach of the rules.
Old Boys’ president Nic Popham believes there has been no breach by Mosgiel and is at a loss to understand why the appeal has been lodged. However, Popham said, “regardless of the outcome, it doesn’t take away the achievements of either club as both have had brilliant seasons''.
''I’m incredibly proud of our side to be guaranteed a top two finish. While it would be nice to be crowned Fletcher Cup winners, our focus remains on qualifying for the Southern Premier League.”
Southland Football has updated the results and the final league table, but Southern Football competitions manager Liam McHenry confirmed a counter-appeal had just been received from Mosgiel which has been passed on to the relevant review panel, so it looks as though this might not be the final word on this matter.
