Football row brewing in central

President of Central Falcons Football Club, Samuel Saunders, is taking the Central Football Association (CFA) to court. This development comes after Falcons were deemed to be a non-member of the CFA. "I received a letter from the Central Football Association (CFA) signed by the president, which seems to suggest that my club is no longer a member of the CFA because the constitution does not cater for non-playing clubs,” said Saunders, a well-known Chaguanas attorney. He charged that another club, W Connection are also non-playing but have not had their membership revoked by the CFA.

After seven matches in the CFA league, Falcons withdrew from the tournament, alleging that they were being treated unfairly.  They claimed CFA president Brian Layne has written a letter to the club stating that they are no longer members of the association. When contacted yesterday, Layne confirmed he had written a letter to Saunders stating that Central Falcons were no longer members of the Central Football Association (CFA) in accordance with the association’s constitution. Layne also defended the inclusion of  W Connection on the CFA membership roll. “In order for W Connection to play in the T&T Pro League they had to be registered with an association and hence the reason they were brought in as non-playing members. The Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) would not have allowed the central-based club to play in the Pro League if they were not registered with the association,” Layne said.

Saunders his club withdrew from the CFA competition in protest of “unfair treatment.” ”A player from Central Falcons was denied a transfer to play for another club but went ahead and played anyway in the Central Football Association competition. When I protested, the association told me that they would set up a hearing for the matter and up until today they haven’t done so. “Every time a matter involving Central Falcons comes up, the association do not take us on but matters involving other teams are treated hastily,” said the former outstanding Presentation College, Chaguanas goalkeeper. Layne yesterday insisted that it was no fault of the CFA that the Falcons matter has not been heard. ”The executive made numerous attempts to card a hearing but had difficulty in getting the parties together. I clearly remember on one occasion Mr. Saunders couldn’t attend,” he said. “There are three guys on the committee and the matter involves one of them so he cannot sit on it. The other two are businessmen and it is difficult to get them together. Remember this is a voluntary thing and we cannot just force people to attend. What we can do is get other people in the positions but this can only be done at our annual general meeting,” Layne said. “We sought advice from the TTFF and they told us to set up a body to deal with the matter. Saunders objected to this and said it was unconstitutional and all this has hindered us,” the CFA official said. Saunders was adamant that only when his club were involved in a matter the association found it difficult to schedule a meeting.