The Wellington Phoenix will not be appealing the three-match ban handed out to Manny Muscat for violent conduct.
The Maltese international was sent off in the 57th minute of the Phoenix’s 4-1 Hyundai A-League loss to Brisbane Roar on Sunday after elbowing Tommy Oar in the head while trying to stop the speedster getting round him.
Muscat was given a straight red card and copped an additional game to the usual two matches for ‘Assault on a Player’ (violent conduct when not challenging for the ball) from the Football Federation Australia match review panel.
Phoenix chief executive Tony Pignata admitted he was surprised Muscat had been given a three-game suspension given it was his first offence but had no complaints about the red card.
“We viewed the footage and we accepted the red card and the referee’s decision,” said Pignata.
“In the end it was just a question of whether we appeal and potentially the risk was that Manny could have got more weeks.”
“We probably felt it wouldn’t happen but we just thought it wasn’t worth the risk and we decided to accept the match review panel penalty of three games and put it behind us and look forward to Friday night-s game [against Melbourne
Victory].”
Muscat will not be eligible for selection until the Phoenix’s Round 20 match against the Central Coast Mariners on December 31.
The Phoenix is also facing a team misconduct charge for collectively showing dissent towards debutant referee Alan Milliner.
“It more revolves around the players running in and talking to the referee. They feel it wasn’t a good look. It should be left to maybe just the captain to ask the questions,” explained Pignata.
“I’ll need to sit down with the players who were involved and see exactly what happened. It was near the benches so again I’ll speak to the people on the bench to find out exactly what happened and what was said.”
The club has until close of business on Wednesday (7pm NZ time) to respond to the charge.
