Sydney FC fullback's job on the line

Ceccoli may pay for foul mouth with his job
Aaron Timms
September 19, 2006

ALVIN Ceccoli's future at Sydney FC was hanging in the balance last night as coach Terry Butcher confirmed he would drop the veteran left back for the match against the New Zealand Knights on Thursday.

Ceccoli had a sideline altercation with his coach during the second half of Sunday's 2-2 draw against Newcastle, gesturing at Butcher with his thumb and telling him to "f--- off". But if yesterday's revelations are anything to go by, there's only one person who'll be doing that - and it won't be Butcher.

Many who saw the incident on Sunday would have drawn one conclusion: Ceccoli, by openly flouting the authority of his boss, had committed career suicide. Butcher was in no mood to debunk that thesis yesterday, hinting Ceccoli would be excluded from the squad indefinitely.

"Alvin Ceccoli will not be going to New Zealand," he said. "I've not set a timetable for his return. I think his actions spoke for themselves. I enjoyed the headline [in the Herald yesterday] morning - "Sydney F***C". I thought that was very clever. But it's not the kind of thing I ever want to see again … At the end of the day, I've got other options in the squad. I won't tolerate behaviour like [Ceccoli's]."

The news comes as Steve Corica, the other swearer from Sunday's match, seems set for an extended spell on the sidelines after the FFA's disciplinary committee cited him for his outburst against referee Matthew Breeze.

The 33-year-old midfielder called Breeze a "f---ing cheat" after a call went against Sydney on Sunday, and was shown a red card. The card means he will automatically miss this Thursday's match, but the additional charge of abusive language could result in another three weeks being added to that suspension.

Corica's card was the third time in six matches that Sydney have had a player sent from the field (the other two were Mark Rudan in round two and Ceccoli in pre-season). Butcher is particularly disappointed that it is the senior players who are ill-disciplined.

"Senior players can help make my job easier by setting the right example to the younger ones, and to do that, their own way of playing and their own attitude have to be spot on - week in, week out," Butcher said. "If the standard or the attitude does deviate and it does drop, then the whole world can cave in. And we've seen that recently - to have three players sent off in the last six matches is just totally unacceptable."

Butcher was combative as a player, but the face he has presented as the coach of Sydney has been at odds with that persona. Instead, we've seen a wisecracking, almost avuncular figure, always reaching for the bon mot when in previous decades he might have gone for the jugular.

But ask Butcher if he has been inadvertently guilty of encouraging the culture of ill-discipline at the club by over-indulging his players, and the mongrel of old immediately returns.

"Anyone who knows me, particularly from my [Scottish team] Motherwell days, knows that if there's confrontation there to be had, I'll meet it head on," he said. "I won't shy away from anything like that. I don't relish [the confrontations], but I'll take them on. If people think that kindness means softness, then they're very much mistaken, because that is not the case at all."

Sydney target Benito Carbone, still locked in talks to become the club's next guest player, was a spectator at Sunday's match.

But rather than being petrified at the prospect of having to play four matches with a mob of clueless hotheads, Butcher said the classy Italian was encouraged by what he saw. "I think he really fancies it," Butcher said.

"I think he looked at that game and thought, 'Well, I can really do something here'. And I know he can … If he doesn't get signed in time for Thursday, then we've still got time for him to get to know the lads and come in for the match against Adelaide [on Monday, October 2]."