Major standoff

A PROLONGED Game of Thrones involving the St Catherine Football Association (SCFA) and its affiliates resulted in last Sunday’s start of the Major League being postponed indefinitely, leaving overburdened clubs and hundreds of footballers in limbo.

A doubleheader set for the famed Spanish Town Prison Oval, Cedar Grove playing Old Harbour United in the opener, after which De La Vega were set to face one of the parish’s oldest clubs, Black Lions, was called off after referees failed to show, reportedly protesting $1.35 million in unpaid fees from the previous season.

Elaine Walker-Brown, recently returned as president of SCFA after an acrimonious victory over Jason McKay, at first said she was “not taking calls from the media” before adding that she was “advised by my council not to speak on that matter”.

Walker-Brown, however, afterwards agreed to speak should Oneil Clayton, head of the St Catherine Referees Association, first comment on the issue, adding, tongue-in-cheek, that she knew he would not.

“Speak to the head of the referees group and I will speak afterwards,” said Walker-Brown, adding, “I know he won’t have anything to say.”

True to Walker-Brown’s words, Clayton was as mum as the FA president when asked what had caused the postponement of the Major League.

“Ask the president, Elaine Walker-Brown,” he responded.

When questioned whether referees were owed $1.35 million in fees, Clayton said, “I am unable to comment on that matter now.”

Explaining Clayton’s predicted silence, a Gleaner source pointed upstream at the Jamaica Football Federation’s referees’ committee.

“A dangerous game, which affects the most vulnerable, the clubs and players, is being played. The president is daring him to speak because she knows what the consequences could be if he speaks out of turn to the press.”

‘All about the money’

The SCFA-referees standoff, The Gleaner’s source said “it isn’t all about the money”.

“The money is one thing but, when you are owed and being dealt with in an adversarial manner, that’s another matter,” said the source, pointing to remnants of the ugly Walker-Brown-McKay presidential battle.

“For close to 45 years, the St Catherine Referees Association, formed in 1981, one of the first in the island, has helped develop referees in parish and was accorded a vote in the St Catherine FA, which they were denied at the last election.

“The referees believe the vote was suddenly taken away because the sitting president felt the issue of the monies owed would have triggered a vote for McKay,” the Gleaner source alleged.

When asked to explain the referees’ group being denied its usual vote at the SCFA election, which the Gleaner source pointed to as an underlying and vexing issue among the group, Clayton answered in the affirmative.

“That’s a fact,” adding, “I don’t know why. I questioned it and didn’t get any answer.”

Efforts to reach Walker-Brown, who had agreed to speak after Clayton, fell flat, as calls to her cell went unanswered.

The Gleaner source added that efforts by SCFA to recruit referees from neighbouring Clarendon failed to materialise, blunted by a show of unison with their St Catherine counterparts, leaving jitters among Division One clubs with their league set to start the second weekend of February.