Arima call for St Anthony’s disqualification

THE SECONDARY Schools Football League (SSFL) is being called upon to disqualify 2002 and 2003 “Big 5” and Intercol champions St Anthony’s College from their association. Making this plea is lawyer Alfred Pierre, who is acting on the behalf of Arima Senior — the runners-up in both the 2003 Big 5 and Intercol finals. But, according to a press release from Arima Senior, the staff members “wished to publicly distance itself from the pending legal action” against the SSFL. The release, signed by Godfrey Madoo, added that members “were not consulted on this matter and are outraged at this most recent act of irrationality which has become the modus operandi of the administration of the school,” the release stated. “This course of action, we believe, speaks against the principles of sportsmanship, fair play and, above all else, discipline which so many of our youths need today,” it continued.

The bone of contention is the use of captain Julius James and midfielder Christian Cabral in the St Anthony’s lineup. Pierre, on the behest of Arima, is professing that James’ “registration as a student was obtained upon the false statement that his number of years in a public secondary school was five, when in fact it was six.” While Cabral “has not met the requirements of the Ministry of Education to be registered as a student with the craft programme” because he failed Mathematics at the CXC Level. The Arima-based lawyer is of the view that James “was not a first repeater as stated” and “as such, the approval obtained from the Ministry was based on that wrong fact.” “The Ministry only approves the registration of a second repeater if he or she was away on national service,” Pierre added. On that score, Pierre is stressing that “some precedent was set in the case of Ricardo Cornwall, who was granted a repeat by the Ministry of Education but the league has refused to allow him to play because he does not have CXC passes.” Pierre is calling on the tournament sponsors — British Gas and RBTT Bank — to “act as they see fit if the Secondary Schools Football League fails to do so.”