FC Pohu filed an appeal against the decision of the Football Association’s competition measure, and it caused a new dilemma

Gnistan played against HJK in the Veikkausliiga at the weekend and lost the match 0–3. Picture: Kimmo Räisänen

Rule bending The match between FC Pohu and Gnistan in the third round of the Finnish Cup continues.

On Tuesday, FC Pohu has submitted a complaint to the objection committee regarding the decision of the Finnish Football Association to reject FC Pohu’s objection regarding the Finnish Cup match FC Pohu / CJ United–IF Gnistan.

The Veikkausliiga club Gnistan won the match against the FC Pohu team, which plays six leagues below, with goals 2–0.

FC Pohu made a protest last week about the IF Gnistan players who played in the match. In his objection, Pohu stated that some of Gnistan’s players did not have the contractual status required by the competition regulations at the start of the match, based on the information from the Pelipaikka system.

The competition function of the Swedish Football Association considered that the existence of a valid contract is a prerequisite for a player’s right to play.

The Finnish Football Association’s competition regulations state that the player’s contract must be added to the register before the player’s first match in the series in question, and if the player’s contract has not been added to the register, disciplinary action can be initiated. The rules of the Finnish Cup, on the other hand, state that the player must have a valid and registered player contract.

FC Pohun executive director Juha-Pekka Partanen says that in FC Pohu’s opinion, Gnistan’s five players were not eligible to play at the start of the Finnish Cup match.

“Gnistan has not completed the registration of the players. According to the counterpart, the player contracts would have been concluded, but the registration has not been completed,” says Partanen.

“Palloliito has a nationwide Pelipaikka system for clubs, where registrations are made. According to our interpretation, a player would be eligible to play if a player contract has been made and the player contract has been registered in Pelipaikka. In practice, there is no known system for registration other than Pelipaikka.”

The matches of the fourth round of the Finnish Cup have already been drawn.

Palloliitto’s director of competitions Pekka Soini can’t say right away how the union should act in this case when the cup competition is progressing and at the same time the complaint has been submitted to the objection committee. He says that we have to think about it.

Soini made the decision to reject FC Pohu’s original appeal.

When the rules of the Finnish Cup say that a player must have a valid and registered player contract, how were Gnistan’s players eligible to play, when your decision states that the contracts were not registered at Pelipaikka?

“That’s my assessment of the matter. My assessment could be wrong,” says Pekka Soini.

Correction April 21 at 2:30 p.m.: Corrected Gnistan to Pohu in one sentence.