The referee of the Dutch Ice Hockey Association (NIJB) has ruled against GIJS Groningen, which means that the play-offs seem to be off the table for the Groningen ice hockey players. But GIJS is considering going to civil court.
The NIJB deducted three points from GIJS early in the season, because in the home match against Yeti’s Breda, which GIJS easily won 4-0 on October 21, a player was on the bench who was not supposed to be there according to the association’s regulations. are allowed to sit.
Tug of war after the NIJB decision
Opponent Yeti’s Breda reported this to the association and said that that player, Nash Hayward Jones (17), the younger brother of GIJS player Flynn Hayward Jones who has long since returned to New Zealand, had taken part in the match and had therefore been on the ice, which GIJS still strongly denies. The association then converted GIJS’s 4-0 win into a 0-5 loss and then the tug-of-war began.
GIJS quickly requested a review of the punishment from the association. Due to crowds, the NIJB reported, the decision was only made in January. That decision was negative for GIJS: the NIJB maintained the three-point penalty.
Urgent arbitration
The Groningen club then decided to initiate an arbitration case against the association. That case was heard last week and was classified as emergency arbitration due to its urgent importance. The urgent importance in this case meant that GIJS and other teams are still in the race to end up among the best 8 teams in the Premier League and thus reach the play-offs for the championship.
Now that GIJS lost at home against leader Amsterdam Tigers last Saturday (2-5), GIJS still has one (home) match that can give GIJS three points. Those three points are not enough for eighth place, where Dordrecht Lins now stands, because Lions has a gap of 6 points with GIJS.
With those three points, GIJS would probably qualify
But if GIJS wins that last match on Saturday in its own Kardinge against Sweetlake Panters from Zoetermeer, number 4 in the rankings, and if Dordrecht Lions loses to title candidate OG Capitals Leeuwarden, then those three points ‘taken’ according to GIJS suddenly become very interesting. Because with those three points, GIJS would still qualify for the play-offs, because the Groningers would then beat Dordrecht on mutual results.
But that should not be the case. Arbitrator Walther van Hulten resolutely rejected all of GIJS’s demands. The main reason: Hayward Jones had been on the players’ bench during the match, which was conclusively established on video footage. And since the players’ bench is the competition area (‘whoever sits there actually takes part in the game’), according to the referee it is simple: GIJS has violated the regulations – the club has also admitted this – and deserves the punishment.
Did he play or not?
Whether Hayward Jones, who as a New Zealand ‘holiday worker’ had dispensation to play in GIJS U17 but was not allowed to play in GIJS 1, was actually on the ice during the match? That is not entirely clear, the arbitrator says in his award. ‘It has been established from the footage presented in the dispute that the said player takes a seat on the bench at the beginning of the second period and goes onto the ice from the players’ bench at the end of the game.’
That was to celebrate the victory, says Jacob van Gerlder, team captain and current vice-chairman of the club. “He sat there without playing a second. Only Breda says he saw that, and the referee agrees. Yes, after the buzzer he goes on the ice to shake hands. Of course that boy should not have been on the bench, that is our mistake.”
‘He sat on the couch like a dickhead’
Van Gelder attended the hearing on behalf of GIJS before the arbitrator in Utrecht. He is deeply disappointed in the verdict. “This is really too crazy for words. Isn’t this far too severe a punishment when you see what actually happened? Nash sat on the bench like a dick, didn’t play a second, the match was not affected in any way by that procedural error. And now we’re probably going to miss the play-offs.”
In the coming days, GIJS will discuss what to do with legal advisor Martijn van der Veen. Van der Veen, a lawyer in Groningen, did not want to anticipate this yet. “But we do not agree with the reasoning and the outcome of the judgment and going to civil court is an option that we will consider very seriously.”