Birkirkara FC lodge protest. Updated: To be heard on Saturday

by Ivan Mizzi - 8th November 2011

Birkirkara FC have lodged a protest with the MFA over their last match against Tarxien FC. The protest is based on a technical fault when in the 66th minute there were two balls in the pitch.

On the 66th minute, Tarxien won a throw-in. The Birkirkara player, Paul Fenech, was distracted putting the other ball outside the pitch while Tarxien played their throw-in which resulted in two balls being inside the pitch at the same time. Paul Fenech could not mark or block the ball from the following cross. Rodrigo Calvao hit home for the third and winning goal.

Club's PRO Mr. Jason Deguara explains the situation

The Club's PRO Mr. Jason Deguara explained further the situation.

”The protest was lodged because there was a technical mistake in the action which resulted in the third and winning goal for Tarxien where there were two footballs in the pitch.

"It's good to mention that when the throw-in was being played, Paul Fenech was putting the other ball outside the pitch. Therefore, the result was that we ended up playing with one player less since Paul Fenech was throwing the other ball outside the pitch. In similar cases like these, the referee blows the whistle to let the other player throw the ball outside, and then the game resumes. However in this case this did not happen and from the following throw-in, we conceded the third goal.

”In the protest, which is a very detailed one, we quoted the laws of FIFA and also those of the MFA about this technical mistake. One should mention that in September 2005, there was a similar case in the match between Uzbekistan and Bahrain and the FIFA ordered a replay of the match.”

Protest to be heard on Saturday

The protest will be heard by the Protest Board at the Malta Football Association Head Quarters this Saturday at 9:30am.

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