DRA Statement – The DRA and Gerwyn Price. Appeal against a decision by the DRA Disciplinary Committee

At a hearing that took place on 11th January 2019 before the DRA Disciplinary Committee, Gerwyn Price was found to be in breach of rule 3.1 and 3.2 of the DRA Rules in the Grand Slam of Darts (GSOD) Quarter-Final match with Simon Whitlock played on 16th November 2018 and in the GSOD Final match with Gary Anderson played on 18th November 2018.

The Committee found that Mr Price had brought the sport into disrepute by his actions and that they amounted to gamesmanship. Mr Price admitted to a further breach of the DRA Rules for putting inappropriate posts on social media.

The Committee fined Mr Price a total of £21,500 and imposed a suspension of 3 months. This suspension was suspended for 6 months until 11th July 2019. Mr Price appealed against both the finding and the sanction imposed.

The DRA convened an Appeals Committee comprising of three independent members; John Mehrzad (Chair), Tarik Shamel and James Harms.

On 17-7-19 the Appeals Committee delivered its decision on the appeal:

The Appeals Committee rejected his appeal against the finding that he was in breach of rules 3.1 and 3.2 of the DRA Rules. The Appeals Committee found that many of the grounds of the appeal were completely without merit and contradicted by the papers in the case.

His appeal against sanction was upheld and the sanction on count 1 was reduced from £8,000 to £4,000 and on count 2 from £12,000 to £6,000, a total of £10,000. The other sanctions imposed were unchanged.

The sanctions as revised by the Appeals Committee are:

1. For Bringing the game into disrepute and gamesmanship in the GSOD Quarter Final Mr Price is to pay a fine of £4,000;
2. For Bringing the sport into disrepute and gamesmanship in the GSOD Final Mr Price is to pay a fine of £6,000;
3. Mr Price will also be suspended from attending or competing in DRA sanction events for a period of 3 months. This will be suspended for a period of 6 months until 11 July 2019 (this suspension has now expired); and,
4. For the inappropriate posts on social media Mr Price is to pay a fine of £1,500 and warned as to his future behaviour.

On 5th August 2019 the Appeals Committee ruled that Mr Price is to pay a total of £2,325.24 towards the costs of the appeal process. The DRA were represented by Louis Weston and Mr Price was represented by Andrew Taylor.

• The full decision can be found on the DRA website at this link
• The full DRA Rules can be found on the DRA website at this link