22 hours Ago By Owen Cowzer
KERRY have announced they are appealing against their forfeiting of their opening day win over Finn Harps – claiming it was a FAI error rather than their own. The First Division outfit beat Harps 2-0 at Mounthawk Park on February 14 to kick-off the season with Australian Stevan Stanic-Floody coming on for the final two minutes. But the FAI subsequently told Kerry that that Australian was ineligible to play, with the Independent Disciplinary Committee ruling this week that the game goes down as a loss.
Now Kerry have outlined why they are appealing, as Stanic-Floody only featured because the FAI’s own registration system had deemed him eligible. A statement read: “The status of the player in question on the FAI Comet system was confirmed on February 5th, and was set to ‘Active’ on February 11th, by an FAI employee..
.“Making our player eligible to play in the FAI’s system, is an action that can only be performed by an FAI employee.“Kerry FC was invited to a Zoom call on March 10th, by an FAI Disciplinary Committee.
“On March 10th, members of Kerry FC attended the call and remained present on the call for up to an hour, waiting for the Disciplinary Committee. “The Disciplinary Committee never showed. Kerry FC was notified by email from the FAI that the club did not attend the meeting with the Disciplinary Committee and was given options to annul or replay the match.
“We requested a meeting with the Disciplinary Committee to plead our case. “On March 27th, a meeting took place where the Disciplinary Committee dismissed all the evidence we brought to the meeting. “In summary, the FAI now claims that an error has occurred, but insists that the fault is not theirs, and that Kerry FC is to blame.
“They have issued our club a €1,000 fine and have ruled that our opening win against Finn Harps be forfeited. We do not believe that Finn Harps are disputing the result of the match.“Rather than admitting to a system error and correcting the issue, the FAI has instead attempted to shift blame onto Kerry FC while silencing any dissent.
“Football should be governed with integrity, not intimidation. We will not accept being bullied into silence. “Kerry FC calls on the FAI to immediately investigate this and take appropriate action.
”Finn Harps were sanctioned for the same game as Gavin Hodgins was deemed not eligible due to issues with his international transfer certificate. The 19-year-old was loaned by Shelbourne to Glenavon last year – though he subsequently played for the Reds Under-20s side.Harps have also said they will be appealing.
The FAI have been contacted for a response to this story.Australian Stevan Stanic-Floody is at the centre of the dispute between the club and the FAI.
