Severe penalties have been imposed yesterday on the Topline Warriors and Nabua Broncos rugby league clubs by the Fiji National Rugby League (FNRL).
The Topline Warriors club faces a two-year ban from all competitions sanctioned by the FNRL on the grounds of repetitive violent incidents, spectator incitement and a failure to uphold the game’s spirit.
Nabua Broncos on the other hand, has copped a $2000 fine while its player in the number eight jersey has been dealt with a three-week suspension for foul play and participation in the fight.
The incident in which these decisions originated from was a brawl involving the two teams in the second half of their round one encounter of the Vodafone Cup at Buckhurst Park in Suva on May 10.
FNRL chairman Akuila Masi, when asked by this newspaper, said the two teams were issued a notice notifying them of what decisions were taken following the completion of a hearing.
“We have issued a notice to the two clubs, we have completed the hearing, so the revised notice will be given to them tomorrow (today),” Masi explained.
“They (Topline Warriors) were banned for two years, but we have an appeal process. They’ve already gone through the hearing today (yesterday), so the committee will just review a few more videos tonight (last night), and we’ll be able to provide feedback by tomorrow (today).”
Masi added after yesterday’s hearing, all parties discussed the latest development and he said they would not shy away from it since they wanted to help address the issue.
“After the hearing, we had a good discussion with them in terms (of) how they can improve the team culture, because whatever image they tarnished two weeks ago is not good for rugby league,” he said.
The outcome of the appeal by both teams will be made known today.
