By WALTER ALIBEY Friday, July 24 2009

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TT PRO League leaders Joe Public Football Club have appealed the bans and fines handed to them by the disciplinary committee of the league on Wednesday, following a brawl which took place soon after the club’s clash with United Petrotrin on July 4.

And they are hinting that there is probably a ploy to prevent them from winning the Digicel sponsored competition.

Yesterday, in a two-page document signed by the club managing director Daryl Warner, Joe Public questioned the penalty handed out by the committee.

The Arouca-based club, known as the “Eastern Lions” received a hefty $13, 000 fine for their inability to control their players during the encounter, match which ended in a goalless draw.

Five Joe Public players also received heavy punishment for their involvement in the brawl, including Colombian goalkeeper Alejandro Figueroa who was hardest hit, with an eight-match ban and $4,000 fine.

Warner labelled the punishment of Figueroa as “harsh” and asked why was a player being fined more than half of his monthly salary.

In a league in which the first round consist of 11 matches, Figueroa has been ordered to miss eight.

Other Joe Public players penalised are “Soca Warriors” striker Hayden Tinto, Seon Power, Carlyle Mitchell and Gorean “Ratty” Highley.

But Daryl, son of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) Special Advisor Jack Warner is strongly critical of the committee’s decision after only one player, Highley, had been interviewed about the brawl.

He claimed that Highley was only interviewed in relation to a red card which he received in the match and not for his involvement in the brawl, as previously stated by the disciplinary committee.

Young Warner is complaining that other banned and fined players were never interviewed concerning the incident.

He branded as “unfair” the investigation by the committee and referred to Article 96 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code which states that, “Declaration from the parties and witnesses are admissible as proof.”

Warner also complained that, unlike Joe Public, players from United Petrotrin were afforded the opportunity to give an account of what took place after the match.

The Joe Public boss is questioning the presence of Lennox “Bullet” Pilgrim as match commissioner when he is known to have been a Petrotrin employee for many years and is currently receiving a pension from the oil company.

Warner asked, how come Petrotrin defender Cyd Gray received only a fine of $1,000 when he, like Tinto, Mitchell and Highley were punished for the same reason.

He later indicated that if the fines levied on Joe Public and players are to stand then the TT Pro League must deduct the money from that which is owed to them from unpaid prize monies for the 2008 season, which they are yet to receive.