Friday, May 15, 2009
The Ryall Case
Lordy, lordy. Australian football did not need this.
It has been a bad week for the reputation of Australian sportsmen in general, given the blanket coverage of the Matthew Johns "incident" in New Zealand. But the sexual antics of NRL players have been a running sore for years; the charges against Sebastian Ryall have come out of nowhere. It would be hard to think of an A-League player with a cleaner reputation than the former Melbourne Victory fullback.
And, it should be remembered, charges are all they are at the moment.
One disturbing piece of information in the above article is the following:
Ryall first faced court on August 13 last year, and is expected to face Downing Centre Local Court in October.
This, of course, was a long time prior to his off-contract transfer from Melbourne to Sydney FC.
Did Melbourne know? Sydney FC and the FFA were apparently unaware of the allegation until April 23 (which begs another question - does it really take three weeks for an issue like this to be "discussed" to the satisfaction of all concerned?). But it would not reflect at all well on the Victory if they were aware of the situation. Likewise, if Ryall and his representatives did not inform either club, then his contract with Sydney FC is surely rendered worthless.
Among other things, it is a distraction Jan Versleijen's Young Socceroos could have done without in the lead-up to their Egyptian adventure. Ryall was, of course, captain of the side, and by all accounts a key contributor.
Not a happy day for the game here.
It has been a bad week for the reputation of Australian sportsmen in general, given the blanket coverage of the Matthew Johns "incident" in New Zealand. But the sexual antics of NRL players have been a running sore for years; the charges against Sebastian Ryall have come out of nowhere. It would be hard to think of an A-League player with a cleaner reputation than the former Melbourne Victory fullback.
And, it should be remembered, charges are all they are at the moment.
One disturbing piece of information in the above article is the following:
Ryall first faced court on August 13 last year, and is expected to face Downing Centre Local Court in October.
This, of course, was a long time prior to his off-contract transfer from Melbourne to Sydney FC.
Did Melbourne know? Sydney FC and the FFA were apparently unaware of the allegation until April 23 (which begs another question - does it really take three weeks for an issue like this to be "discussed" to the satisfaction of all concerned?). But it would not reflect at all well on the Victory if they were aware of the situation. Likewise, if Ryall and his representatives did not inform either club, then his contract with Sydney FC is surely rendered worthless.
Among other things, it is a distraction Jan Versleijen's Young Socceroos could have done without in the lead-up to their Egyptian adventure. Ryall was, of course, captain of the side, and by all accounts a key contributor.
Not a happy day for the game here.
Comments:
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This is from a post in the Melbourne Victory forum.
From what I can gather police saw Seb & this girl getting it on and then obviously asked to see there i.d.'s. Hence how they found out he was 18 and she was 13. I'm sure there is still some law that states that's illegal (i'm not sure).
They didn't have sex.
As I said, this was what was told to me by a Melbourne Victory player and have no reason not to believe him. Whether his information was 100% correct. I'm not sure.
We will have to wait and see....
From what I can gather police saw Seb & this girl getting it on and then obviously asked to see there i.d.'s. Hence how they found out he was 18 and she was 13. I'm sure there is still some law that states that's illegal (i'm not sure).
They didn't have sex.
As I said, this was what was told to me by a Melbourne Victory player and have no reason not to believe him. Whether his information was 100% correct. I'm not sure.
We will have to wait and see....
Cheers for the heads up as always Gweeds.
Information I've received also temds to indicate that the Crown case is weak, bordering on insubstantial.
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Information I've received also temds to indicate that the Crown case is weak, bordering on insubstantial.
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