Fight after EFL match and bans

Sunday, November 9th, 2014. Verona Dragons vs. Liverpool Bulldogs. Verona won with a 2-0 score. However, this was the least important.

After 38 minutes of the 1st half, when Verona was already 1-0, a reckless sliding tackle from David Whitham changes the whole thing. Whitham, from Verona, slide tackled Markus Landström, from Liverpool Bulldogs. Landström fractured his left tibia and fibula and suffered an open dislocation in his left ankle. Whitham was immediately red carded after it. After some arguings, kicks and slaps, the match went on. Verona won by 2-0. But there was something left.

After the match, both teams went to the changing room. However, Liverpool Bulldogs player Michael Bornstein attacked David Whitham by punching his head. Then, the fight began. Many players involved (not all of them). Verona Dragons player Alessandro Marconi had a cut in his forehead after a player of the Bulldogs headbutted him.

Monday, November 10th, 2014. After the horrible scenes in the VerArena changing room, all of the players of two teams, except Landström (who is in hospital recovering from surgery), had to show up in TUSN headquarters. There, the players explained what happened in the fight one by one, and the TUSN owner, Bruno de Barros, heard all of them. A lot of players had match bans. David Whitham was the one who suffered the worst ban. The list of the banned players is here below:

- David Whitham - Verona Dragons - 43 match ban - Avoidable tackle that injured another player

- Michael Bornstein - Liverpool Bulldogs - 14 match ban - Started the fight after the match and injured a player.

- Nicola Aero - Verona Dragons - 7 match ban - Throwing bags and punching the opponents. Had a bigger ban because he was red-carded in the season, when he injured a player.

- Mark Houghton - Liverpool Bulldogs - 7 match ban - Houghton admitted that he headbutted Marconi.

- Cristian Fidrini - Verona Dragons - 6 match ban - Punched and kicked Magnus Göransson (who had a forehead cut)

- Yksel Seger - Verona Dragons - 5 match ban - Kicked Jonathon Bowers in his groin during the match. Seger, however, during the changing room brawl, suffered four fractures in his face and will miss the rest of the season. He was punched by Michael Bornstein and was knocked out after hitting his head on a door.

- Liam Pinder - Liverpool Bulldogs - 3 match ban - Slapped and spat on Gabriele Calabria during the match

- Jerome Aluko-Asante - Liverpool Bulldogs - 1 match ban - Slapped Mario Anticoli in the face during the match. The ban was reduced after knowing that he was one of the players who tried to stop the fight after the match.

Dragons and Bulldogs can appeal the decisions, although de Barros had threaten the teams to not make such action, otherwise they will have points docked in the standings. According to him, the teams should deal with the bans and try to go on after the damage was made.

Markus Landström is out of the season due to the severe nature of the injury. An initial report said that he would return in 4 months. Which is unlikely after realising the extent of the injury. Landström may return in 6 or 7 months.