Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter
ARNETT GARDENS' Kevin Wilson has received the biggest punishment handed out by the Jamaica Football Federation's disciplinary committee for his role in the on-field fracas which led to four players being red-carded near the end of Sunday's end-of-round final against Harbour View at the Harbour View Mini Stadium.
Wilson will serve a four-match suspension while his teammate, Cornel Chin-Sue, will miss three games. Harbour View's Leon Strickland also received a three-match ban while his teammate, Rafeik Thomas, got a two-match suspension. In addition to missing the games, the players were also fined $5,000 each.
Wilson may, however, also face additional sanctions from his club. According to club president Patrick Roberts, a meeting will soon be held between the club executives and it could lead to him facing a 50 per cent deduction from his monthly salary.
"We reviewed the incident and we think that the bans that were imposed were totally justified," Roberts said yesterday.
"Discipline comes first and that is the hallmark of any good team; it cannot be sacrificed for anything else. You cannot have one win as a substitute for discipline. If that is the case, we would rather have none at all," he said.
GROUP PUNISHMENT
While generally agreeing with that sentiment, Harbour View manager Clyde Jureidini believed his players might have been victims of a general group punishment.
"Discipline is discipline, but we think that it was a little bit unfair to Rafeik in particular to have to pay the same amount of money for reacting to someone who hit him twice," Jureidini commented.
"But it's simple in these matters ... You tend to give a general ruling on the issue. We think that the punishment could have been handled on a more individual basis," he said.
