Luxol Bupa are contending that they had a sacrosanct right to appeal against Disciplinary Commissioner’s sentences issued recently.

In a reply to the request by four of the men’s clubs for an extraordinary general meeting, Luxol have issued their own version of the facts that have led to the suspension of men’s competitions by the MBA.

The statement, over the signature of John Tabone, says every affiliated club has the privilege to exercise its rights within the Rules and Regulations of any association - the MBA is no exception.

It said Luxol, like any other affiliated club, had the sacrosanct right to lodge an appeal against the Disciplinary Commissioner’s sentences, particularly in the case of its player Marco Mercieca.

The first Appeal’s Board reasoned and judged that Mercieca did not use any violence in his actions and consequently his sentence was reduced from five games to a one-match ban and Robert Azzopardi’s reduced to two matches.

According to the MBA statute, Article 73 states that:

(1) The board shall confirm, modify, reduce or annul any decision taken by the Disciplinary Commissioner or the Protests Board.

Therefore, according to Luxol’s statement, Marco Mercieca was eligible to play in the club’s 61-59 win against Siggiewi.

Siggiewi lodged a protest that (1) Marco was ineligible to play the aforementioned game (2) that Luxol Player Antoine Costa did not return the whole Siggiewi kit and (3) that a suspended Luxol official was present in the VIP stand.

The statement said the club’s views on these allegations were the following;

The Appeals board decided otherwise prior to the game being played.

Antoine Costa is owed money from his ex club Siggiewi.

According to the Disciplinary Code 3.0 suspension paragraph 3.1. states the following:

“In the case of an appeal, the suspension, if confirmed by the Disciplinary Board, will commence from the date of the appeal sitting.” (The official was still waiting for his appeal to be heard)

Following the consideration of the matter by the MBA, it transpired that the original Appeals Board was not approved at the beginning of the season by the Council and that it did not have the necessary quorum, therefore they contended that Appeals Board decision was null.

The Presidents’ Council subsequently agreed that the MBA President would seek the legal advice of three lawyers to see how the MBA should proceed, which he did, and the result was that he was told that Luxol’s appeal should be re-heard as the Appeals Board was wrongly constituted and therefore null.

In the meantime the MBA’s Executive council issued a list of board members to be approved to sit on various boards and committees of the MBA. The list, as was sent by Colin Schembri, MBA Vice President and Siggiewi committee member, who is also the PRO of the MBA, included the following persons;

Borg Costanzi Michael, Briguglio Anthony, Camilleri Gino, Cassar Joe (MOC), Cassar Joe (KMS), Depasquale Franco, Ebejer Robert, Galea Alex, Galea Envic, Muscat Bertie, Muscat Benny, Refalo Joe, Tufigno, Gatt Edward, Bianchi Louis, Buttigieg Joe, Mifsud Joe, Mizzi Alexandra.

These persons were all approved by the Executive Council in the presence of club officials including David Agius, Adrian Mifsud and Ray Cuschieri.

Luxol had no option but to accept the MBA’s decision and proceed to a second Appeal’s Board now composed of Lawyers Tufigno, Mifsud and Borg Costanzi to re-hear the appeal.

In the statement, Tabone went on to say that the properly constituted Appeals Board this time reduced Marco Mercieca’s ban even further than that of the First Appeals Board, where it found player Mercieca once again not guilty of using any violence and delivered a sentence without any match ban.

Tabone said Luxol’s opponents did not accept the Second Appeals Board decision either and they took the decision to put the pressure on the MBA to postpone all the Men’s competitions.

To Luxol, no matter what is decided, nothing will change the club’s records of the game. It is already archived as follows;

Luxol: Game number 988 played on 29 January 2011, competition: 1st Division League, Luxol vs Siggiewi, Score: 61-59, Venue: Ta’ Qali. Referees: E. Mangani, A. Carbonaro and C. Terribile.

Tabone concluded the statement by asked what he termed as an honest question:

“If we had lost to Siggiewi that day, what would have happened to the league or the EGM?”

The club wanted to leave it to the sporting public and most importantly the all affiliated members of the MBA to draw their own opinion, added the statement.