Sour FA
Posted on Mar 06 2008 | Tagged as: The Stupid, Sport
Via Dan:
A non-league club faces suspension by the Football Association from all competitions for refusing to pay an ex-player jailed on a robbery charge.
Grays Athletic FC terminated Ashley Sestanovich’s contract before his conviction for conspiracy to rob.
Grays have been given 14 days by the FA to pay Sestanovich £14,000 for the five months up to his conviction.
He was jailed for eight years. Two other men were jailed for life for shooting a man dead during the raid.
Sestanovich is arguing that he should have been paid up until the time of his conviction, as the club shouldn’t — legally couldn’t — have terminated his contract until then. If he’d been found not guilty then maybe he’d have a point.
But given that he was on remand for five months, had the club simply suspended him without pay on the entirely reasonable grounds that he was unavailable to play, and then fired him after the verdict, the situation would be exactly the same as what it in fact is.
