OLYMPIC FC ISSUES APOLOGY OVER REF ABUSE
luke.hayes@news.com.au A SPOKESMAN for Olympic FC has apologised to the community following recent championship points sanctions and referee boycotts on the club from Football Federation NT.
Olympic committee member Leo Athanasiou spoke with the Sunday Territorian, although he was unable to provide full comment due to ongoing legal proceedings.
Athanasiou issued an apology to anyone affected by misconduct or offences committed by Olympic supporters or officials. “We are very, very sorry for anyone who has been affected by what has happened, we do not endorse any kind of bad behaviour at our club,” he said.
“We have also asked our members to take care of each other, and if they see any bad behaviour from our supporters, to pull them up on it.”
Athanasiou felt that Olympic hadn’t had an appropriate or fair opportunity to put its case forward in an official tribunal process with FFNT. OLYMPIC FC COMMITTEE MEMBER LEO ATHANASIOU
“I feel very sorry that this has occurred. The action taken by the FFNT, they felt that was appropriate and we have to live with it,” he said. “The club didn’t get to go a tribunal to state their case. I just want common sense to prevail.”
The most recent bout of controversy surrounding Olympic stems from its members reportedly dishing verbal abuse to a teenage referee, reducing her to tears during an under 16s match on August 4.
This follows sanctions already placed on the club for an incident of a similar nature last month. The Sunday Territorian spoke with FFNT CEO Bruce Stalder about his frustrations with one of Darwin’s most prominent football clubs.
He said he stood by the decisions made by the FFNT referee body to boycott officiating matches with Olympic following the August 4 infringement.
“After the initial incident there was a two-week boycott on all Olympic games and then we withdrew that. After the most recent incident, they’ve implemented a boycott on all junior matches (with Olympic) on suburban grounds,” Stalder said. “That’s indefinite, that’s up to the them (the referees), they had a meeting on Wednesday night to reinforce that and it will continue until they see accountability and responsibility from that club.”
Olympic’s response to the penalties imposed by FFNT was to take to social media, asking its supporters to rally around the club and support requests for fair treatment.