Top 14: Perpignan threaten court action After
Tincu’s 18-week ban is upheld
15 November 2008
Perpignan’s continued participation in the
Heineken Cup is in doubt after Marius Tincu’s 18-week ban
was upheld by the European Rugby Cup, the competition’s
organisers.
The Catalan club had vowed to fight on if the
Romanian hooker lost his appeal against the eye-going ban, a
situation that came to a head on Friday after the ERC’s
Appeal Committee stood firm.
The original incident occurred in October
during the club’s Heineken Cup clash with the Ospreys, with
Tincu subsequently cited and found guilty of eye gouging
against opposing prop Paul James.
Perpignan were outraged by the initial
18-week ban – labelling it “grotesque, scandalous and
shameful” - and threatened to withdraw from the Heineken Cup
and take the case through the civil courts should the
punishment be upheld on appeal.
The basis of their disquiet was that the
incident was not caught on camera and therefore Tincu was
being punished without sufficient evidence.
Now their threat looks like becoming a
reality with an initial club statement confirming their
intent to raise the issue with the NRL (the French league
organisers) after their perceived “denial of justice”.
“The ERC has quite simply ‘rewritten’ the
fundamental principles of European rights,” said the club
statement.
“We reserve the right to
follow all possible avenues in front of national and
international sporting courts, but also to challenge the ERC
in front of civil tribunals,” it added.
The club claimed it “cannot accept the
unacceptable, namely the condemnation without a shadow of
proof of its player Marius Tincu”.
The ERC’s earlier statement had said it
upheld the ban because it “found that Marius Tincu had not
demonstrated that the original decision had been in error,
or that it should be overturned or varied”.
The committee had previously rejected a
further allegation of eye gouging against Perpignan’s
Guilhem Guirado in the same match, while banning James for
one game for a retaliatory punch on Tincu.
Now, as things currently stand, Tincu will be
banned until March 10th 2009.
One extra interested observer in the whole
episode is New Zealand fly-half Dan Carter, due to join up
with Perpignan in December on a lucrative seven-month
contract. The All Black sensation specifically opted for
Perpignan ahead of Toulon because of their participation in
the Heineken Cup, an irony that will not be lost on the
player should the Catalans now opt to boycott the
competition.
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