FootballSouth chairman Matthew Holdridge confirmed a hearing had taken place and the Green Island player found guilty.
He was banned for two years, although the club has appealed to New Zealand Football over the severity of the penalty.
Holdridge declined to name the player.
The incident took place in a game of division six football, which is for players aged 35 and over. The match was between Mosgiel and Green Island.
Mosgiel president Pat Howell said the player, Gary Barclay, had been badly injured and was going to take a long time to recover.
Howell said he was disappointed the Green Island club had decided to appeal.
Barclay declined to comment when contacted yesterday.
The incident was believed to have occurred when Barclay was hit by a swinging arm while running in a different direction to the offender.
He is believed to have fractured his C2 vertebrae and spent four days in hospital.
Howell said although he did not see the incident he was led to believe it was pretty bad.
Howell said he had heard of similar lengths of bans being given out by the judicial committee and he felt the penalty was satisfactory.
Green Island president Mark Stewart said the club felt the ban was too harsh and so it was appealing. He declined to name the banned player.
He said the club knew of other incidents just as bad as this in which the level of penalty was well short of the two years handed out.
The offender had thrown away his boots and would not play again, Stewart said.
The club also wanted to know what the scale of the ban was. Would the offender be able to watch his children play football, for example?The club was waiting to hear back from New Zealand Football about the process of any appeal.
It was expecting to hear by the end of the week.
Holdridge said it was always disappointing to hear of an incident like this, which he said was isolated.
FootballSouth had no tolerance of such incidents.
The judicial committee was independent of FootballSouth but he was comfortable with the penalty handed out.
He said there was no problem with violence in football and the division six grade was a mixture of people from all walks of life who enjoyed playing the game.
