The Labour Party activist and water polo official who was last month suspended from all aquatic sports for two years for threatening an anti-doping official has had his punishment reduced to a 10-match suspension.
Rainer Scerri, a Neptunes team official, was given the more lenient penalty after an appeals board nullified the original punishment and ordered the investigation to recommence.
The second investigation was concluded last week and it did not find Scerri guilty of threatening the anti-doping official. It did, nonetheless, find him guilty of other grievances.
Scerri was originally found guilty of threatening an anti-doping official when the official asked two Neptunes players to take doping tests at the end of a water polo match in July.
Scerri had reportedly urged the players not to take the test and threatened he would call Sports Minister Clifton Grima. An Aquatic Sports Association (ASA) official who was a witness to the incident reported she heard him say: “No, no, no they won’t take the test. I’m calling the minister” (“Le, le, le, mhux se jagħmlu t-test. Ħa nċempel lill-ministru”).
Scerri insists he never told players to refuse to take the test.
In the original decision, ASA Disciplinary Commissioner Adrian Camilleri ruled that, from Scerri’s statement after the incident, it was clear that the accused did not contest the reports filed against him and, therefore, interpreted that statement as “an unconditional admission of guilt”.
He, consequently, handed him a two-year suspension from all aquatic sports activities, plus a further three years suspended for three years and a €100 fine.
But when Scerri appealed, the appeals board ruled that Scerri’s statement was, in fact, not a clear admission of guilt. The board, thus, annulled the first decision and ordered the process to recommence.
The second investigation was concluded last week and a decision by ASA Disciplinary Commissioner Herman Mula found Scerri guilty of “refusing obedience or showing disrespect, behaving in such a way that is likely to bring the sport into disrepute and is likely to give a bad example and for disapproval of a decision using unacceptable language” and condemned him to a suspension for “10 consecutive matches played by Neptunes” starting from the first coming game and a €500 fine.
Sources say this means Scerri is only barred from his team’s matches for the next three or four months, until Neptunes play their next 10 games in a couple of small, winter championships. The sources said this means he will be rejoining his team by spring.
Several sources said they were irked by the fact that one of Scerri’s lawyers was Nationalist MP Adrian Delia and the appeals board chair was another Nationalist MP – Joe Giglio.
It is strange, they said, how Scerri – a PL activist – was accused of a “fundamentally political” incident concerning a Labour minister and was then defended by a PN MP before an appeals board chaired by yet another PN MP.