Two soccer players have been hit with eight-week bans for using discriminatory language against an opponent.
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The pair were playing for Cobram Roar against Wangaratta in Division 1 of the Albury-Wodonga Football Association men's competition on July 17 when the incident took place.
An allegation of racist language being used against a Wangaratta player was reported to AWFA's executive committee, who referred the matter to a general purpose tribunal.
The tribunal found the two Cobram players, who have not been named by AWFA, guilty of 'using offensive, insulting or abusive language or gestures,' and handed out bans of one and two weeks respectively, a ruling which was appealed by both clubs.
At a subsequent hearing, the appeals tribunal dismissed Cobram's appeal and upheld Wangaratta's appeal, finding the players guilty of 'use of discriminatory, homophobic, racist, religious or sexist language and/or gestures.'
That saw the initial suspensions lengthened to eight weeks for each player, with four matches suspended pending good behaviour to the end of next season.
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Cobram are considering taking their appeal to Football NSW and while the club declined to comment publicly when contacted by The Border Mail, Roar officials consider the case to be ongoing.
AWFA president Greg Scott insisted the association would work to stamp out any forms of discrimination across its competitions.
"One of the things the appeals tribunal suggested is that we run an education campaign for players, officials and referees," Scott said.
"That was something we were already talking about anyway.
"We discussed that at the previous management committee meeting because we feel it's an important issue and we certainly can't have it in our game.
"We don't want to see it and there's a zero tolerance policy on it."
Cobram and Wangaratta will both feature in the men's Division 1 finals series, which starts next weekend.
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