Neptunes president gets lengthy suspension

The ASA of Malta Disciplinary Commissioner came down heavily on Neptunes WPSC president Matthew Bonello and his club on Wednesday after acting on an uncontested report following incidents at the end of last week’s decisive BOV Winter League final play-off at Tal-Qroqq.

Bonello was banned from all ASA activities for eight months and fined €466 on one count of defamation and another charge of aggressive behaviour.

According to a report posted on the ASA website yesterday, at the end of the match Bonello verbally accused the referees, calling one of them in particular ‘corrupt’.

He then behaved aggressively when addressing high-ranking officials from the association, also ‘requesting that his team be withdrawn from the summer league’, the report added.

In both cases, the minimum term of suspension was applied, the ASA said, in view of the non-contestation of the report and Bonello’s acknowledgement of his mistakes. A charge of crowd incitement against the Neptunes president was also dropped.

However, after reflecting on the gravity of the offences, the Disciplinary Com-missioner deemed it fit to hand down a hefty €1,466 fine on Neptunes.

One of the sanctions, a €233 fine, was meted out for the throwing of objects in the direction of a referee.

On May 8, old rivals Sliema and Neptunes were vying for the pre-season honour, having both won a match each in the best-of-three winter final.

Sliema eventually won the series 2-1 after a dramatic 9-8 win that saw a bold Neptunes’ comeback just falling short of forcing extra-time.

Reliable sources yesterday told The Times that Bonello and Neptunes WPSC will be appealing against the ASA discip-linary measures.