Football
Wairarapa United coach Phil Keinzley is not often lost for words.
But even he admits to being non-plussed on hearing Napier City Rovers had been successful with their protest into Wairarapa United allegedly playing an ineligible player - Vanuatu international Brian Kalteck - when they beat NCR 2-1 in a Chatham Cup third round match on June 16.
A ruling made by New Zealand Football (NZF) yesterday has booted Wairarapa United out of the cup competition unless they are successful with an appeal which will be lodged with the national body this week.
"Honestly, I really haven't given much thought to the protest because I knew we had done all the necessary homework and was confident we were in the clear," Keinzley said
"I didn't quite know what to say when I heard we had been kicked out. I just didn't see it coming at all."
What irks Keinzley most is it was NZF which wrote to Wairarapa United just days before the Napier game saying Kalteck was clear to play.
Keinzley said he had asked NZF to rule on Kalteck's eligibility as a "non-guest player" because he did not want to risk his team being disqualified and he would not have played him had permission not been granted.
"We knew he [Kalteck] could not play for us as a guest player because we already had the maximum three players in that category but, because he had actually joined up with us the previous season, we thought he could be okay," Keinzley said.
"We didn't hide anything. We made it clear that he had gone back home to play for the national team and we wanted to know whether that meant he needed to be reclassified.
"So when NZF came back and said everything was good we took it as gospel. We had no reason to think otherwise, did we?
"Quite frankly it looks like NZF made a stuff-up and now we are paying for it."
In a press release yesterday, NZF said they granted the Wairarapa United request on the evidence provided by the club but it had since surfaced that Kalteck was outside the country when the application was made, only arriving back in New Zealand two days before the Napier game, and two days after Wairarapa United's request to reclassify the player was submitted.
"It's another unfortunate reminder of the need for clubs to be vigilant when preparing evidence for transfers, player registration and player status changes," NZF's competitions manager Chris Kemp said.
"The onus is on clubs to be on top of things when doing their research and ensuring players meet the requirements of the competition in which they are playing."
Comments of that nature do not sit easily with Keinzley who said Wairarapa United had been vigilant in their dealings with NZF yet they were now being forced to appeal a decision which was not of their making.
"I can't see where we did anything wrong and that's what the appeal will be based around. We simply don't think we have a case to answer."
Wairarapa United will be making the point in their appeal that Kalteck only played the last seven or eight minutes of the Napier match, being introduced off the bench more because of Keinzley's desire to get some idea of his readiness for future games rather than to strengthen the effort in that particular match.
"We didn't need to play him," Keinzley said. "Surely it's obvious that if we thought there were any doubts over his eligibility we wouldn't have put him on. "We were in front and there were only a few minutes to play. Why the hell would you take any risks?"