Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC) head coach, Fatai Amoo, has described the one year suspension slammed on striker Gbolahan Salami (pictured) by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) as too severe.
The organising and disciplinary committee of the country's football house charged the former Sunshine Stars' man for attempting to assault a match official after his team's game against Crown Football Club at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abeokuta.
The NFF committee subsequently handed him a one-year suspension in a hearing in which the player was absent from.
Salami was also expelled from the camp of the Nigerian men's national team, the Super Eagles, in Abuja in the wake of the punishment.
3SC gaffer, Amoo, is now of the view that the FA committee on disciplinary matters should have not come down so hard on Salami since the player had no intention of attacking a match official as alleged.
“The truth is that Gbolahan (Salami) told me he never intended to attack the referee but wanted to talk to him (the referee) about his officiating in that game (against Crown). Gbolahan felt that since he was captain on the day he has the right to make his mind known to the referee but never planned to attack the referee as it is believed.
“I think the whole issue was misunderstood because he was held back by our team manager (Ajibade Babalade). Even at that he kept saying that he just wanted to have a few words with the referee, as we see players do at the end of matches in top leagues across the world.
“But to give him a one-year ban is just too much. When you suspend a player like that, you ultimately kill everything in him such as his talent and career. I'm not saying this because he is my player but I feel a one-year ban is too much, as I believe there are other better ways to sanction an erring player,” Amoo told SuperSport.com.
It is, however, the second time that Salami is coming under suspension this season after he was handed a four-game ban by the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) after his verbal assault on Sunshine Stars' head coach, Gbenga Ogunbote, on the opening day of the season.
Why is coach Fatai Amoa trying to make a case for G. Salami? We all saw the video of the incident and it does not look like someone who was trying to chat with the referee. It would best for him to serve out the punishment so that he can learn from it.
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