Football West is disappointed at the public reaction of Perth Soccer Club President Gary Marocchi to the procedural handling of the National Premier Leagues WA club’s competition breach.

Football West has a responsibility to uphold NPL WA competition rules in the interest of fairness to other clubs and for the sake of competition integrity.

Against Inglewood United on April 19, Perth SC breached a competition rule (Article 23, Paragraph 1) by listing on its NPL WA first-team match card a player who had not been listed on its player roster or assigned a points allocation under the Player Points System.

Prior to this breach, Football West had processed 578 players in the Player Points System (PPS). Perth SC was aware of the rules, the requirements and the system. They had correctly processed 26 players before this breach.

The competition breach was discovered four days after Football West had issued a reminder of the Player Points System process. The reminder was additional to numerous Operations Meetings conducted by the NPL WA manager to assist clubs in understanding the PPS and other aspects of the inaugural NPL WA season. Perth SC was represented at meetings on November 27, 2013, January 15, 2014, February 19, 2014 and April 7, 2014.
 
The NPL WA manager is the only Football West staff member dedicated to the NPL competition and has worked closely with clubs to achieve outcomes beneficial to all parties. Football West continues to work closely with volunteers at NPL WA clubs, whose dedication is recognised and appreciated.

Despite acknowledging the breach, Perth SC exercised its right to request a Tribunal Hearing against the Football West decision. At the Hearing on May 7, the independent Tribunal dismissed the challenge after concluding there were no mitigating circumstances preventing the correct procedure, although it was acknowledged that the error was administrative and the club had not deliberately circumvented the rules.

Perth SC opted not to appeal against the Tribunal’s decision and a 3-0 forfeit victory was awarded to Inglewood United.

The Competition Rules make clear that clubs are responsible for ensuring all listed players are eligible to play in the NPL.

Under FIFA’s Disciplinary Code, yellow and red cards incurred in a match subsequently forfeited for an administrative breach are not annulled.

In the interest of consistency, and in fairness to the endeavour of players involved in the match, Football West has decided that all individual player match data will be retained, including goals scored and fairest-and-best player votes.