A situation all too familiar to Southern United has unfolded this week.
The result, though, is one at which the club has every right to feel aggrieved.
Auckland’s national women’s premiership team was found to have fielded an ineligible player in its first three matches of this season.
However, unlike Southern United’s men’s team a year ago, it was not docked points for its three wins.
Emma Fletcher was not registered with the side, at least not the former age-grade national team player.
A younger player by the same name, who had previously played for the federation, had been registered in the belief she was the same player.
New Zealand Football cited exceptional circumstances as its reasoning for not penalising the team, the oversight being a genuine administration error.
However, that was not an acceptable reason for a similar error by Southern a year ago.
After beating Tasman United 4-0 in its season opener, the men’s team had its result turned into a 3-0 loss after a protest from Tasman.
Notably in the Auckland situation none of the opponents protested.
The players in question — Cameron MacKenzie and Cody Brook — had entered the game late and had minimal impact on the outcome.
Both were fully registered, cleared by football’s Comet system and NZF player agreements had been completed.
They had each also been announced by the club on social media, were in the squad photo and had played in pre-season matches.
However, an additional spreadsheet had not been sent to NZF in time.
In the lead-in to the game, a key staff member had a family bereavement and the club had a busy week with the opening of Logan Park Turf and the visit of Juan Pablo Angel.
Southern appealed the decision citing extenuating circumstances, but the protest was upheld.
Had Southern not lost those points, it would have been tied with Eastern Suburbs in fourth place on 22 points when the league was cut short due to Covid-19. The club withdrew from this year’s men’s league, following the impacts of Covid-19.
Southern CEO Chris Wright said the club had moved on from the incident.
