San Juan want FA replay

OFFICIALS of Samba Extra Malt San Juan United are calling for their Lucky Bakery-sponsored Eastern Football Association FA Trophy quarter-final match against Joe Public to be replayed. And a letter of complaint has been sent to both president of FIFA Joseph Sepp Blatter and the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation general secretary Richard Groden. When the original match was contested at Squadron Ground, Arouca, on Tuesday last, the teams played to a 1-1 draw at the end of regulation time. And without playing extra-time because of fading light, the referee went straight to kicks from the penalty spot. Still the San Juan team and the Eastern Lions were  knotted up 5-5 and the referee decided to stop the kicks and go to a toss of coin which Joe Public won. But San Juan manager John Martin is contending that the referee erred in starting the penalty kicks then changing it to sudden death before reverting to regular penalties. Martin said the coin toss took place at 6.45 pm, and expressed the belief it should have been done in a lighted area where relevant personnel could have seen the coin.

He said, instead the referee, apart from not showing the coin to the captains, went ahead and had the flip in the middle of the unlighted football field. Martin also claimed that Joseph “Sam” Phillip, manager of Joe Public and an EFA executive member appeared among the two captains and the referee and made it known “not speaking as a Joe Public member but as an executive of the EFA, win, lose or draw, the coin toss must be taken.” He said as a result, he believes Phillip’s presence would have influenced the referee and subsequently his action constituted  a conflict of interest.

Martin said his club was “totally dissatisfied with the manner of operations of the referee in this match.” He said they believe the referee made a very serious error of judgement which caused chaos and delay which in turn led to the coin coss being taken in the dark. Added to this, Martin said Phillip’s presence and comments were improper and “for all these reasons we are asking for a replay of this match.” Martin further said his club is also calling for an investigation into the operations in the refereeing of football matches in the EFA.