Is Mandi’s suspension long enough?
It looked terrible. Wellington Phoenix midfielder Mandi booting a defenceless Vince Lia in the ribs while the Adelaide United midfielder was on his hands and knees at Coopers Stadium on Saturday.
Sure, the ball was there to be kicked from under Lia while he tussled with Phoenix defender Liberato Cacace.
In fact, closer inspection of the replay appears to show just as Mandi winds up his kick, Cacace pokes the ball out from under Lia.
But the problem is, Mandi sprinted in from five metres away and collected Lia with excessive force. It’s a stone cold red card in anyone’s estimation.
But what is less clear is what ban he should face.
At that point, you’re basically asking how long’s a piece of string? The guidelines around this aren’t widely known.
First, the Match Review Panel has deemed the challenge to be ‘‘assault on a player’’ when not challenging for the ball, which carries a minimum sanction of two games. The MRP added one more game, because . . . well they don’t say that publicly. They just say they’ve done it and expect everyone to just accept that.
They make that judgment based on four things: whether the offence was intentional, negligent or reckless; the player’s past record; the remorse of the player; and any other extenuating circumstances.
The Phoenix, quite rightly, plan to appeal against the ‘‘assault on a player’’ ruling. The ball is clearly there as Mandi winds up his kick, so he is challenging for the ball. It should be recategorised as serious foul play.
But that doesn’t mean he should automatically get a reduction in his ban.
There is no maximum sanction for serious foul play – Newcastle Jets striker Roy O’Donovan served a 10-match ban for his serious foul play in last year’s grand final when he kicked Melbourne Victory goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas in the face as Thomas tried to punch a cross.
Mandi’s challenge was nowhere near as dangerous or reckless, but it does warrant more than one game on the sidelines.
Why? Well it went above and beyond a normal football challenge. It wasn’t a 50-50 where the ball was there to be won and he got it wrong. He steamed in from five metres away and delivered a kick with excessive force which was always going to collect Lia in the ribs, regardless of whether he got the ball or not.
Some people might claim the fact Lia had collected Mandi with his studs in a challenge a few minutes before might be an extenuating circumstance in Mandi’s favour, but the Phoenix would do well not to bring that up at the appeal.
The ‘‘heat of the moment’’ argument doesn’t wash with disciplinary committees, and bringing that up would raise the suspicion Mandi was acting with malice to exact revenge on Lia.
So what does all that add up to?
Two to three games seems fair for an incident which was a bad look for Mandi, the Phoenix and the A-League, but one which wasn’t as bad as it first looked.