Wellington’s Sasse lifts ALM ban

Wellington Phoenix playmaker Jan Sasse has successfully reduced the A-League men’s suspension from three games to two.

The Brazilian was given a three-match ban by a match jury last week for committing “serious misconduct” in Wellington’s season opener against Adelaide United on October 9.

Sasse played just 25 minutes on the pitch before being deemed a reckless lunge against Adelaide’s Javi Lopez.

The minimum sanction for serious misconduct is one match, but an independent commission assessed the incident as serious enough to warrant an additional two weeks.

Phoenix took the matter before Football Australia’s Discipline and Ethics Committee to appeal the two-week additional sanction imposed in addition to the one-match suspension.

A committee convened Tuesday night to reduce the ban period to two weeks.

Sasse missed out on the weekend’s draw with the Central Coast and will serve the second match of his suspension against Newcastle this Saturday.

He will be available for Phoenix’s game against Melbourne City next Sunday.