KEY POINTS:
Former All Whites coach Kevin Fallon yesterday suggested Auckland Grammar withdrew from a major soccer final against his schoolboy team so they wouldn't lose.
"Have you ever known someone not to show up for a cup final?" said Fallon, director of Mt Albert Grammar School football academy for a decade. "What's the problem? Think about it. Why wouldn't you? I've never known this anywhere in the world. You get to a cup final and you don't show up?"
Auckland Grammar formally defaulted from the Knockout Cup final - a showpiece on the school sporting calendar set down for today - after an altercation during a match between the two teams at a separate competition in Napier last week.
Yesterday Fallon told the Herald his MAGS side had a superior results record and questioned if that was Grammar's motivation for defaulting.
"Maybe they don't want to get beaten, I don't know. They've been beaten three times this year [by Mt Albert] - maybe they don't want a fourth one."
He said the Mt Albert Grammar first XI won two major competitions this year and were gunning for the third, a rare honour the school last achieved in 1999.
"I hope they turn up - we don't want to get a cheap triple, we want to earn our triple," said Fallon.
"Life's not a bowl of roses, is it? You know, sometimes you've got to carry on from little things and move on, how about that?"
He would not comment on the specifics of the incident on field in Napier.
The Herald understands police interviewed Fallon about alleged "manhandling" of an Auckland Grammar player and that officers have DVD footage from the game.
Auckland Grammar headmaster John Morris, a former New Zealand goalkeeper and ex-chairman of NZ Soccer, reportedly said a brawl between players began following a tackle on a Grammar player.
He claimed Fallon became involved, manhandling one of the Grammar players, and said he thought Fallon himself ended up on the ground following pushing and shoving.
One player from each side was sent off and subsequently suspended by the NZ Secondary Schools Football Association, but no action was taken against Fallon.
Mt Albert Grammar head Dale Burden said he received varied accounts of what happened, including one that intimated Fallon had been assaulted.
The two schools issued a statement yesterday declaring they had no desire for the issue to be played out in the media.
It said the two principals talked yesterday and Auckland Grammar sent information received from "independent witnesses" to Mt Albert Grammar.
Mt Albert Grammar was holding an internal review, after which the schools would resume talks "in the hope of gaining a long-term solution".
