Newcastle Jets goalkeeper Izzy Nino has received a two-game ban for her role in a melee between Jets and Melbourne Victory players in the Liberty A-League clash on Saturday.
Nino earned a red card after stepping into an altercation between Jets teammate MelindaJ Barbieri and Melbourne Victory forward Emily Gielnik, raising her hands to Gielnik’s neck.
Football Australia’s independent Match Review Panel (MRP) convened on Monday afternoon to assess the incident, and deemed Nino had committed the offence of “assault on a player (e.g. violent conduct when not challenging for the ball) or against any other person other than a match official including an attempt to assault player”.
The minimum sanction for the offence is two games, being the mandatory match suspension, plus one additional match. The MRP, consisting of Simon Micallef (Chair), Alan Davidson and Alan Contini, handed Nino a two-game suspension, beginning with Newcastle’s clash with Adelaide United in the final round of the regular season.
Should Newcastle break into the top six and book their place in the Finals Series, Nino would miss the Jets’ Elimination Final in the first weekend of the post-season, returning in the event of her side reaching the Semi-Finals.
If Newcastle falls short of the finals after their final game of the regular season, Nino’s suspension would carry over to Round 1 of the 2024-25 season.
Nino has until 2pm AEDT on Tuesday, March 26 to advise Football Australia (FA) whether she intends to refer the matter to the Disciplinary and Ethics Committee for an appeal hearing.
FA noted there were no other incidents to review across Round 21 of the 2023-24 Liberty A-League season.
