No recourse for STATHS despite ISSA’s Walker Cup admission

St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) will just have to rue what could have been after a controversial, and now admittedly wrong, decision helped shove them to the wrong side of a penalty shootout in the Walker Cup final against Jamaica College last week.

According to a letter from organisers of the Walker Cup, the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), written to principal of STATHS, Dr Worrel Hibbert, advising him that though the decision to have a JC penalty re-taken after it was deemed that the ball was moving when an initial penalty was saved, there were no rules that would allow for any sort of reversal at this point.

The ISSA letter dated the principal original missive as being penned on December 9.

A day earlier, STATHS were locked in a massive battle inside the National Stadium and after a 1-1 draw with JC, their penalty shootout was tied 6-6 in sudden death after they had each missed one spot in the opening five.

STATHS goalkeeper Jaheem Williams had saved Zinodean McLean’s penalty and his teammate Kevin Hall was lining up to take a spot that could send his side to their first major title in more than 30 years.

After consultation with the fourth official, however, McLean’s penalty was ordered re-taken.

McLean scored, Hall missed and JC lifted the Walker Cup.

Afterwards, it was revealed that the penalty was ordered re-taken because the ball had moved before the kick was taken and one of the criteria for a legitimate penalty was that it be at rest.

According to former FIFA referee, Peter Prendergast, the only Jamaican to stand in the middle at a World Cup, the decision was wrong and the fourth official’s intervention was also out of order.

The letter from ISSA agreed.

“The decision made by the central referee to retake the seventh penalty by Jamaica College was made in error,” ISSA’s letter read.

According to ISSA, “The laws of the game do not allow a re-take under the circumstances as existed.”

However, ISSA also made it explicitly clear that there was nothing to be done.

“Neither the laws of the game nor ISSA’s competition rules ALLOW for a reversal or the referee’s decision,” read ISSA’s letter.

Still, some action has been taken over the erroneous award of a re-take.

Again, according to ISSA, the leadership of the ‘referees group’ has pulled the referee from ‘active duty’ and ‘implemented a remedial programme of training for the said team of referees’.