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Melbourne Victory will have Besart Berisha back for Friday night’s A-League elimination final against Brisbane, after their appeal against the star striker’s additional match suspension was successful.
Berisha was red-carded and later handed a two-game ban by the A-League match review panel for kicking out at Wellington’s Andrew Durante while getting treatment during Victory’s 4-1 win on April 2.
Sitting in Sydney on Tuesday night, FFA’s independent disciplinary committee reduced that ban to one match, ruling that Berisha had been sanctioned sufficiently by being sidelined for half of the Phoenix game along with serving his mandatory one-match ban in Saturday’s scoreless draw with the Roar.
The decision means Victory’s attack will receive a major boost for their do-or-die trip to Suncorp Stadium and significantly increase their chances of progressing past the first week of the finals.
In a two-and-a-half-hour hearing, the committee viewed photos and footage showing Durante’s hand reaching out to Berisha while he was on the ground receiving medical treatment after being knocked on the head during an aerial contest.
Berisha told the committee that as he lay on the ground in a “dizzy” and sore state receiving a concussion test by the club doctor, Durante approached him and moved his boot onto his hip and his hand to his throat.
“He moved close to my hip with his boot and he said `You have nothing wrong, stand up’, and he kept pushing at my hip,” Berisha said.
“He was pushing down on my throat and I couldn’t even talk to the doctor.
“He was saying ‘stay calm’.”
While unable to confirm any contact with Berisha’s throat, the committee agreed it was Durante’s intention to bait Berisha into reacting, which they said was out of order particularly given it interfered with a player’s medical treatment.
They also accepted Berisha’s claim that rather than attempting to harm Durante, the 30-year-old was trying to push the Phoenix defender’s boot away from his hip.
However the committee’s chairman also warned the feisty Albanian forward he also needed to reign in his own behaviour.
“You’ve had the benefit tonight of a favourable hearing, and you should be aware that opposing players do wish to provoke you … you need to take that on board very carefully,” chairman John Marshall SC said.
Berisha made assurances he would “try to be a good role model to the Australian people”.
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