Promoters apologise for cancellation of Boyz friendly
Jamaica Observer
Thursday, October 11, 2007
British-based GB Sports has apologised to the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) for the cancellation of the proposed friendly match between the Reggae Boyz and Ghana's Black Stars.
In a letter yesterday to JFF president Crenston Boxhill, Mark Gibbon of the events promotion company said, "I apologise for the inconvenience that this would have caused."
The game, which was orginally scheduled for Leyton Orient's Brisbane Road ground on Sunday, was called off after GB Sports failed to secure an alternative venue when the London-based club decided against hosting the match, citing "security concerns".
It was said the London Metropolitan Police refused to police the game as it needed a 35-day notice to arrange for security for this particular game against the normal 28 days notice served prior to matches.
Matches in the past involving African teams have often been tainted with rowdy crowd behaviour and instances of match invasions, so the police did not get sufficient notice to arrange "special security" for the event.
Recognising that an alternative venue in London would not be forthcoming, the Ghana Football Association (GFA), desperate for a warm-up match before the start of the four-nation tournament they will host next month, attempted to shift the game to Accra on Wednesday.
At a press briefing yesterday in the Ghana capital, the GFA officially announced that the game would not take place there either.
Gibbon, in his letter to Boxhill, said, "for internal reasons we have now been notified that it is not possible" for the match to be played in the west African country.
He further noted that "there were too many external influences that prevented this match from taking place".
Ghana will enter the next month's tourney without a practice game and coach Claude Le Roy expressed disappointment that the game against Jamaica fell through.
"There's no plan (to play anyone else). The plan was to play against Jamaica. We've tried to find teams to play, but it has not been possible," he said on the GFA's official website ghanafa.com.
And this latest failure has added to the mounting problems facing the Boxhill administration which will relinquish leadership to former president, Captain Horace Burrell, the sole nominee for the post of president, at the voting congress on November 4.
In August, shortly after Boxhill announced that he would not be seeking re-election, an embarrassing bungling by the administration resulted in the Under-15 team failing to travel to Trinidad & Tobago to contest the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) tournament, which resulted in a fine being levied against Jamaica by the regional body, the CFU.
As a result of the abandonment of the game, the Boyz will remain idle for another two days (October 14 and 17), dates reserved by FIFA for nations to play competitive and/or friendly games.
The Boyz were also inactive on the last FIFA dates, September 8 and 12, and have not played a game since the team, comprising local-based players, completed a four-nation your of Asia in late June to early July.
In a match between Jamaica and Ghana last year, the Boyz were routed 1-4 at Walkers Stadium in Leicester, England. Ghana first played the Boyz at the Accra Sports Stadium in 1999 where they won 2-1.
