England Hockey announced today that two Slazenger League Clubs are to be deducted points and face fines as a result of fielding players who had played abroad during the season contrary to league rules. Premier Division Loughborough Students, who reached the last eight of the EuroHockey League, are to be deducted 10 points and fined a total of £200. Bath Buccaneers, who at one time were prospective promotion candidates from Division One are to be deducted 15 points and fined £200.
The following is the full transcript of the announcement by England Hockey:
At it’s meeting of 7th April the EHL Committee discussed the issue of EHL registered players who it had been alleged had been playing hockey in Ireland.
The players concerned are John Jackson and Chris Gregg of Loughborough Students and Chris Cargo of Team Bath Buccaneers. All three were found to have played in inter club cup competitions organised by the Ulster Branch of the Irish Hockey Association during December 2007. In addition subsequent investigations found that Cargo had also played in an Ulster Premier League match on 19 March 2008.
The relevant players and clubs have ratified this information. The EHL committee is satisfied that club officials had no prior knowledge of this.
EHL regulation 4.2.8 states that:
If an EHL registered player plays for another club in an outdoor League match in England (excluding matches organised under the authority of BUSA), or another club in any competitive cup or league match in any other country affiliated to the International Hockey Federation (FIH) that player will immediately be deemed to have been de-registered by so playing and thus be ineligible to play in the EHL.
Having established that the players became ineligible by their participation in these competitions the EHL committee considered the penalties to be applied in line with EHL Regulation 13.2.
13.2 Penalties
Any team found to be in breach of Regulations 4.2 or 1.4 may be subject to the following penalties:
13.2.1 a fine, and/or
13.2.2 deduction of 1 point for each EHL match in which an ineligible or de-registered player has played subject to a maximum of 5 points, and/or
13.2.3 deduction of all points gained in any and each EHL match in which an ineligible or de-registered player has played subject to no maximum, and/or
13.2.4 such other penalties as the EHL Committee consider appropriate.
In considering this the EHL Committee considered previous penalties in which ineligible players had played in the EHL. However, the committee noted that there is no precedent in which players have played a significant number of games where information had subsequently come to light that they were ineligible to do so.
The EHL Committee agreed the following penalties in line with Reg 13.2.
Team Bath Buccaneers are to be deducted all thirteen points earned during the second half of the season in games that Chris Cargo participated in. In addition, the club to be deducted a further one point in respect of Cargo’s participation in the Ulster cup competition, and a further one point in respect of his participation in one Ulster Premier League match; totalling a fifteen point penalty.
In addition the club will be fined £200 in respect of the player actions which were contrary to the EHL regulations and Cargo will be suspended for the first four matches of season 2008-09.
Loughborough are to be deducted all eight points they earned during the second half of the season in games that Jackson and Gregg participated in. In addition the club to be deducted a further one point in respect of each player’s participation in the Ulster cup competitions. This is a total of a ten point penalty.
In addition the club will be fined £100 for each player whose actions were contrary to the EHL regulations, totalling £200, and each player will be suspended for the first two matches of season 2008-09.
In applying these penalties the EHL Committee, which includes volunteer representatives of clubs, wishes to stress that by registering to a club in the EHL the league regulations are clear that a player should only play competitive hockey for that club and that any action contrary to this will lead to penalties being applied to their EHL club.
