After his crude tackle on Melbourne Heart’s Adrian Zahra on Saturday, Kevin Muscat is facing a ban that most certainly has the potential to end his career.
Nervous... Muscat will cop a minimum six week suspension.
With seemingly the whole nation condemning Muscat, former Socceroos gone analysts, Francis Awaritefe gave his thoughts in an exclusive with Injury Time.
After Mark Bosnich came out on Saturday with the view that Muscat should be banned for the time Zahra was injured for, Awaritefe vehemently disagreed.
“Each incident should be judged on merit,” he said.
“Not the length of time out by injured player.”
However, either way, it does look like a length ban for Muscat, after the A-League Match Review Panel came to the decision that the tackle deserved a ban of four or more games. Any such decision must then be sent to the A-League Disciplinary Committee.
Only four games remain in the regular season of the 2010/11 Hyundai A-League, and with Muscat looking at a minimum six-week ban, it almost definitely rules him out for the rest of the season.
Rumours continue to persist that this was to be Muscat’s last season in the A-League, and indeed the Melbourne Victory captain’s time may be up.
If he does pull the pin on the A-League after this though, he still may not have played his final game for the club.
The Victory will participate in the 2011/12 Asian Champions League later this year, but it is not sure whether Muscat will put his hand up for the tournament.
The A-League Disciplinary Committee will meet on Thursday to decide upon the final decision regarding Muscat’s suspension and sanctions.
Gordon D'Mello
Gordon is a Journalism student at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney who has a huge passion in the field of sports writing and sport itself. Here he is a writer, senior editor and is also a co-founder of Injury Time.
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4 comments
Dman says:
Jan 25, 2011
I think Francis is brushing over a bigger issue. Here is a chance for a player to be made an example of and a chance for the over aggressiveness and “manly-ness” of football in Oz to morphed it to something a bit more controlled.
I saw the tackle live and at first it was hard to see where Zara was hit but it was plain to see he went “arse over tit”. I think anything less than a 8 match ban is negligent on FFA’s part.
One cannot ignore Muscat’s reputation and that is taken into consideration anyway. Hopefully this will also wake up managers to skip selecting players who have these aggressive and reckless streaks.
Sun Tzu said: For to win 100 victories in 100 battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.
This can be interpreted as to if Muscat dispossessed Zara is a legal and non-aggressive manner than he is a skillful defender, but Muscat will win 100% of challenges against Zara (or anyone) going into them in the manner that he did. This is not skill. I could have done that to Zara.
Okwano says:
Jan 25, 2011
But surely you can’t judged 100% on tackle only?
I dont like muscat and i hope he get big ban, but its not fair if zahra took 1 year to get better and muscat was out for that long.
Gordon. D says:
Jan 25, 2011
I agree with Okwano to a point. Yes, Muscat is known for reckless challenges throughout his career, so that must be remembered, and the tackle was ridiculous.
Although, I do think he should get at least around the 8 game suspension or more too, Dman.
Injuries take certain time to heal, and sometimes such tackles can be accident’s.
It would just pain for the young lad Zahra to pay for all these physical and mental costs of such an injury. That’s the worst thing to come out of the incident.
Dman says:
Jan 27, 2011
Let us not forget a somewhat similar but less intense tackle on Adelaide’s Matthew Leckie by another Melbourne Victory player Surat Sukha. This tackle was not at full on as Muscats but still brainless none-the-less and possibly intended therefore my Sun Tzu quote still stands.
I really think Leckie would be in Qatar ahead of Robbie Cruse if Surat took the more skillful approach.