Players suspended, clubs fined over Super 8 brawl

Players from both the Pigotts Bullets FC and the Swetes FC who were involved in a brawl that brought the Antigua & Barbuda Football Association’s (ABFA) Super 8 finals to a premature
end in early April, have been suspended by the body’s disciplinary committee.
The players, five from Swetes and three from Bullets, were all given five match suspensions while the Swetes FC was fined US $1,100 and Bullets, US $750 over the incident.
For Swetes, Devaughn Thomas, Rodney Michael, Joel Jacobs, Craig Martin and Shelorn Knight have been suspended from playing the first five “ABFA sponsored and or sanctioned games” of the 2017/18 domestic season on the ground of “involvement”.
 

Alickson Montoute, Carim Smith and Lyndon Thomas, all of Bullets, have also been handed five match suspensions in all ABFA sanctioned and sponsored matches for their involvement in the matter.
During the incident, which occurred on April 3, Premier Division’s Pigotts Bullets FC led the newly promoted Swetes FC, 2-1, with some 13 minutes of regulation time left in the 90-minute contest when the fight, involving players and spectators from both teams, erupted on the field at the Antigua Recreation Ground (ARG).
Montoute had struck twice, scoring in minutes 44 and 67 to give Bullets a 2-0 advantage going into the latter stages of the second half. Juwan Roberts pulled Swetes within one with a 77th minute conversion when the incident occurred.
Both clubs had swiftly issued public apologies following the brawl and had vowed to put measures in place to avoid similar incidents.
Both teams were also disqualified as finalists in the Super 8 competition by the disciplinary committee.