St. Albans Saints head coach Toby Paterson has launched a scathing attack on Football Federation Victoria following the governing bodies decision to strip his side of three points.
FFV announced last week that the St. Albans NPL1 side would be deducted three competition points after the club failed to field a side in an U13 fixture against Hume City on April 13.
The FFV informed the club that they breached Clause 16.2(a) of the NPL Participation Licence (Failure to field the Mandatory Teams for all Matches during the season).
Paterson admitted it was difficult to lift his side when they took to the field in a 2-1 win over Moreland Zebras at Churchill Reserve on Sunday afternoon.
“This club has been feeling flat this week because the federation have taken three points off us for failing to field an U13 team and that’s absolutely torn the hearts out of everybody at this club,” the head coach said.
“Not just the players, but also the committee, the supporters… I’ve had people from the children’s committee that have resigned over this issue.
“The kids are down, we’ve had sponsors talking about potentially pulling out of the club because of it. They’ve made a laughing stock of the league.
“It wouldn’t happen anywhere else in the world what’s happened with three points taken off our senior side.
“We lose good volunteers, we potentially lose sponsors and the players get sick of it.
“I had one player who was actually talking about retiring over it. He’s just had enough of it… the stupidity of it.”
St. Albans have struggled to fill their junior sides this year, with the club battling the likes of Green Gully and Melbourne Knights in the Western Suburbs for registrations.
“We’ve embraced the NPL here in St. Albans and done everything that we possibly can,” Paterson said.
“I’ve personally gone around to schools myself with Ryan McGuffie, our technical director of football, to encouraged kids to come here.
“We’ve put on free coaching clinics and we’ve tried to fill our teams because we’ve had do to it in such a short period of time, yet the federation see fit to strip us of three points.
“The thing about the U13’s is that we had kids who are 11 and 12 year old stepping up. They are getting beat 16, 17, 18-0.
“Those kids are not winning, they are going out there and being absolutely hammered.
“The kids are losing out. The sponsors are talking about pulling money out. The players are flat. There is absolutely no common sense in this decision.”
Paterson confirmed the club will be fighting the decision, even accusing FFV of not running a fair and democratic system.
“We will be fighting it. We’ll be going to FIFA and be getting our lawyers on to it,” Paterson said.
“We asked the game to be replayed the following week. There’s lots of other ways to go around it but to take three points off us I don’t see who’s benefiting here.
“We’re not gonna roll over and just accept it. These people here put in a lot of time and effort and they are not just gonna simply sit back and say yeah take three points off us.
“If we allow that to happen then what are they gonna do? Just make the decision to deduct them three points, or award them three points? It’s not a fair and democratic system they are running.
“I challenge the people at the federation to come and have a look at how football clubs like St. Albans operate.”
Photo: Roberto Filitti