St Blazey managers and players dumped over Covid breach party

Two football managers and a number of players have been released by their club for breaching Covid-19 restrictions.

Joint St Blazey managers Matt Hayden and Shaun Vincent, and several players were caught leaving a Christmas party.

They were filmed at a Plymouth apartment on 19 December, breaching Tier Two restrictions.

The Cornwall Football Association (CFA) said it had investigated and passed information to the police.

St Blazey AFC tweeted on Thursday: "The club can confirm that joint managers Matt Hayden and Shaun Vincent, as well as the players involved during the events of the Christmas Covid-19 breach, have been

relieved of their roles as St Blazey AFC players/managers".

"The club would like to place on record their sincere thanks for the hard work of Matt and Shaun as well as all of the players efforts on the pitch. A full statement will be released in due course."

In a statement on its website on January 11, the CFA said: "Having taken advice and guidance from The FA it has been agreed that the incident does not fall within the jurisdiction of The Cornwall FA to

issue charges via the Football judicial process".

It said the club had "sincerely apologised" to everyone affected, including "supporters as well as anyone staying at the accommodation in Plymouth that night".

Devon and Cornwall Police said it was aware of "an incident that appeared on social media that allegedly showed a football team from Cornwall having a party", but it was not reported at the time.

However, officers visited the property at a later date to speak to the owner of the letting.

During the pandemic, fines have only been issued when supported by evidence captured by officers at the scene, so no action was taken against members of the football club, the police said.

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