Having been stripped of a win in week one of the BCFC season, the Okanagan Sun are hoping the junior football conference will overturn its ruling.
The British Columbia Football Conference announced on Tuesday that it was stripping the Okanagan Sun of a win over the Valley Huskers in week one of the season for using an ineligible player.
The game between the Okanagan Sun and Valley Huskers was held at the Apple Bowl in Kelowna. According to the BCFC the Sun registered and dressed an ineligible player, breaking “BCFC Rule and Regulation 4.2 (b).”
The Sun are disputing the ruling with general manager Jay Christensen saying they plan to “aggressively appeal” the ruling. Christensen said the team won’t be making any comment until after a ruling on the appeal is made.
It’s unclear when a decision by the BCFC will be made.
According to the BCFC Sun player Curtis Kelly, who is from Ontario, played for the Hamilton Hurricanes of the Ontario Football Conference in 2012. He was not granted his requested release, therefore was still the property of the Hurricanes. Other teams cannot recruit, register or dress players while their rights are held by their current team.
The rule states “Should the player be ruled ineligible due to a major breech of eligibility rules (overage, suspension, unregistered and/or other similar situation) the offending team shall be subject to a fine not to exceed Three Thousand Dollars and forfeit game/s in which the ineligible player is on their roster.”
In this case the BCFC has ruled against the Okanagan Sun who will forfeit their victory to the Huskers. The records will show the Huskers recording a 1-0 victory over the Sun on July 27, 2013.
BCFC President Gord Johnson stated, “It was a decision not taken lightly by the BCFC. We are working with the CJFL on ways to prevent such situations in the future.”
Pending the result of the appeal the Sun overall record will be changed to reflect the forfeit, dropping them to 2-1. The Huskers record will also change bumping them to 2-0-1 after Week 3 of the season.
