St. George's Cricket Club has moved swiftly by banning for 10 years the person who allegedly struck linesman Gladwin Lodge with a bottle during Sunday's First Division game at Wellington Oval.

The east-end club took immediate action by calling an urgent meeting for Monday to deal with the matter, but last night officials were unwilling to comment on either the meeting or the subsequent lengthy sentence that was handed out.

Bermuda Football Association president Charles Marshall, who has already named a commission to investigate the incident, was not too anxious to comment on the action taken by St. George's in view that it may prejudice the association's own investigation.

But Marshall did admit that the fact that St. George's had taken quick action proved that they were not prepared to let the offender get away with something as serious as the bottle-throwing incident.

"It's important that something this serious does not go unnoticed. All of the relative reports have been handed in and our commission has a duty to investigate it as soon as possible,'' said Marshall.

The action by the culprit caused referee Gregory Belboda to abandon the game after 64 minutes.

The Police have already confirmed that Lodge has filed an official complaint, but last night it was not known whether criminal charges would be made through the courts. Sgt. John Dale of the Police Community Relations Department could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile the BFA has received communication from FIFA about the incident during the World Cup game against El Salvador at National Stadium in October when fans stormed onto the pitch after Bermuda scored the only goal.

There had been concern that FIFA would take serious action after the referee had reported the incident, but the governing body has only warned the BFA to not allow a similar incident to occur again.

BFA administrative assistant Joe L. Brown said that FIFA was aware that Bermuda fans are not known to cause anything like "riots'' and viewed the incident as being no more than fans showing their jubilation. But they still noted the importance of having Bermuda take steps to ensure that it will not happen again.