The verdict of the National Sports Court of Appeal is expected today on the appeal presented on Tuesday by Forlì regarding the “Cecotti case”, after the sports judge had rejected the Galletti’s complaint on Tuesday regarding the Carpi-Forlì match. The viale Roma company had appealed to the art. 21 paragraph 4 CGS claiming that the Emilian defender Tommaso Cecotti, who replaced Verza in the second half, would not have been entitled to participate in Sunday’s match. Since Cecotti had served his one-day suspension against Pistoiese (last January) and the Tuscan team was canceled from the championship, that match, for Forlì, is to be considered canceled and, consequently, also the disqualification not extinguished.
A thesis rejected by the sports judge, according to whom «the exegesis proposed by the complainant contradicts the spirit of the rules and the correct application suggested by the consolidated orientation of the Court of Sports Appeals, on the subject of the execution of sanctions, which invites guarantee the correct balance between the principle of effectiveness (and affliction) of the sanction, which must be effectively served and not entrusted to the discretionary power of the club to which it belongs, and the principle of separation (and homogeneity) of the competitions, by virtue of which the disqualification , where possible, must be served in the competition in which the member committed the infringement”.
The sports judge also established that «in the present case the footballer Cecotti Tommaso actually served the sanction of the disqualification of a match and did so in the same competition in which he committed the infringement, whereas the interpretation proposed by the complainant would require serve the sanction again and this, due to a provision of renunciation or exclusion imposed on a club other than the one with which the player is registered and in no way attributable to the latter”.
It is unlikely that the Sports Court of Appeal today can overturn this provision, contradicting the first sentence, for which Cecotti “at the time of the match in the epigraph, had fully served his disqualification and was, therefore, fully entitled to take part in it”. Especially since an acceptance of what Forlì claims would open a Pandora’s box, opening the way to a series of complaints and appeals also from other clubs and making a championship even more chaotic, irreparably marked by the exclusion of the Tuscans. Of course, hope is the last to die and in addition to Forlì, who in the event of a favorable ruling from the Court of Appeal would win the match against Carpi by default, bypassing Victor San Marino and returning to the play-off zone, there is also Ravenna to cheer in this sense. In fact, if the Emilians were deprived of the 3 points on Sunday, Gadda’s team would return to -1 behind the leaders and, with two rounds still to play, could once again aspire to Serie C.
Meanwhile, Antonioli and the team are focused on Sunday’s decisive match against Mezzolara. Regardless of what the direction of sporting justice will be, in fact, the Galletti must win both on Sunday and against Aglianese if they want the play-offs. The coach hopes to recover Maggioli and Bonandi, while it is more difficult to get Ballardini back available.
