A-League soccer coach Christope Gamel cops huge ban for assaulting a player from rival team

A member of an A-League club’s coaching staff has been banned for six games for ‘assaulting’ a player from a rival team.

Macarthur FC assistant coach Christophe Gamel won’t return to the Bulls’ bench until late next month after Football Australia’s independent disciplinary and ethics committee upped his original suspension of two matches by a further four games following an incident soon after the final whistle of his club’s 2-1 loss to Newcastle on October 25.

Gamel’s action of shoving Jets goalkeeper Ryan Scott in a post-match melee resulted in him being shown a red card by referee Tim Danaskos.

After being reviewed by the match review panel, the incident was referred to the committee, which determined that Gamel had committed the offence of ‘assault on a player, team official, spectator or any other person other than a match official’, leading to a mandatory two-match ban. 

Upon further review of the incident, it was announced on Tuesday night that Gamel’s suspension would be increased to six games.

The Macarthur FC assistant coach (centre) shoved Jets goalkeeper Ryan Scott following their match last month

With two matches having already been served, Gamel can return to the bench for the Bulls’ December 23 game against the Mariners.

That length of time also takes into account that no A-League matches are being played this weekend due to the FIFA international break.

Bulls chief executive officer Sam Krslovic said the club would not appeal the decision despite believing the ban was ‘excessive’.

However, Krslovic said FA and the A-League had to ‘enforce’ the rule that no coaches or club officials should enter the field of play during a game or while players were leaving the field.

‘If that’s the view, then it needs to be enforced consistently across every game,’ he said.

Krslovic also thanked the independent disciplinary and ethics committee for a ‘fair hearing’, but also called for a review of the an MRP system that led to the incident being sent to the committee rather than being dealt with immediately.