Referee Deepak Raj who officiated the Security Systems Management Inc Tailevu Naitasiri and Rams Cleaning Services/ All Freight Logistics Suva’s Digicel Fiji FACT match has been suspended.

This has been confirmed by Fiji Football Association Chief Executive Mohammed Yusuf.

Yusuf says upon review of the referee’s assessors report by the Referees Committee and advice from an Oceania Football Confederation specialist present at the game, it was established that the decision made was indeed wrong.

“It was decided that he did make an error. An error of judgment which resulted to a penalty which was scored. The result of the match stays but the referee has been taken off the referee’s panel.”

This means Raj will no longer officiate in any of the round-robin matches, semis and final.

Raj made a handball call against Tailevu Naitasiri inside the box with about 20 minutes left to play which Suva’s Sahil Dave took advantage of from the resulting penalty and enabled the Capital city side to win 1-0.

Appeals by Tailevu Naitasiri proved futile as Raj stood by his decision.