Football SA boots Ghan Kilburn City out of FFA Cup SA, Salisbury moves through to round three

Football SA has booted an amateur soccer club which was involved in an on-field brawl leaving a player with “sickening head injuries” out of one of its competitions.

Ghan Kilburn City Soccer Club will not progress to round two of the FFA Cup SA after Football SA booted the club from the competition.

An amateur soccer club involved in a violent on-field brawl has been booted from the state’s top knockout competition after an appeal on bans from two other tournaments was finalised.

Football SA released a statement on Friday saying Ghan Kilburn City would be withdrawn from participating in the 2021 FFA Cup SA preliminary rounds with “immediate effect”.

This was despite giving the club the green light to take part in its round one clash against Adelaide Titans on Wednesday April 14.

An FSA ruling deemed the club was eligible to fulfil its FFA Cup fixture while the matter remained under appeal.

Ghan Kilburn beat Adelaide Titans 6-1 at the Parks and was set to take on Salisbury United in round two this weekend.

But FSA said in its statement that Ghan had “breached the statutes of Football Australia, inclusive of the Code of Conduct” and Salisbury United would therefore be awarded a bye and progress straight through to round three with Ghan out of the competition.

Ghan Kilburn Soccer Club appealed the sanctions handed down by the SAASL after being involved in an on-field brawl and has been kicked out of the FFA Cup SA competition.

“Football SA has determined that the club has breached the statutes of Football Australia, inclusive of the Code of Conduct, which govern all affiliated competitions conducted in Australia,” the statement said.

“Given the seriousness of the breaches … the club will be withdrawn from participating in the FFA Cup South Australian Preliminary Rounds for the 2021 season with immediate effect.

“In breaching such requirements, the image and the reputation of the sport can be severely damaged resulting in players, spectators and sponsors withdrawing their support of the sport”.

It comes after players from the Sunday League top-flight amateur side were involved in an on-field melee during a pre-season cup match against Adelaide Croatia Vukovi on February 21.

The fight between players and spectators left a player with a “sickening head injury”, according to one of the clubs involved.

Ghan appealed the sanctions the SAASL handed down, which included being banned from participating in the Challenge Cup and Reserve Cup competitions.

It was also fined $1350 and started its league campaign with an 18-point deduction.

All original sanctions were upheld except for the number of points deducted for the 2021 regular season, which was reduced from 18 to 12.

Ghan Kilburn is out of the FFA Cup SA competition.

In an email seen by The Messenger, the SAASL Appeals Board said the penalties imposed “should be serious … but the board did not want them to be so oppressive as to crush the hopes of (Ghan) for the upcoming season”.

Ghan president Rahim Zaidi said the situation “very painful” and the club would release a full statement on Monday.

“It’s very painful, not just for me but for all our committee and our players,” Zaidi said.

“It’s a very bad time for us.”

Salisbury United did not wish to make any comment and Adelaide Titans has been contacted.

The on-field brawl between Ghan and Adelaide Croatia Vukovi broke out after Ghan scored a goal and players from both sides wrestled for the ball to bring it back into play.

The match was called off and both sides took no further part in the pre-season cup.

Adelaide Croatia – which was subject to one existing suspended sanction – was set to be placed on a further suspended bond of $300 and a three point deduction until the end of 2022.

One Adelaide Croatia player was also set to appear before the disciplinary committee.

Ghan became Sunday division one amateur league champions last year and, two years ago knocked a five-time winner out of the FFA Cup SA.