St George's banned from SSFL
By Mark Pouchet (Trinidad Express)
St George's College have been banned from the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) East Zone Championship Division for two years.
The suspension follows the school's defaulting of four matches in the league during the season.
At an SSFL disciplinary committee meeting on Tuesday, a four-man SSFL Disciplinary Committee, chaired by SSFL assistant general secretary Lawrence Seepersad and comprising East Zone chairman Philip Fraser, FIFA instructor Merere Gonzalez and Peter Timothy, ruled that St George's College should be banned and that all games played and results given against them during the season should be stricken from the records.
Those results included a 13-0 and 18-0 whipping at the feet of newly-crowned zonal champions San Juan Secondary Comprehensive on September 14 and October 8 respectively and an 11-0 trouncing suffered against last year's champs St Augustine Secondary on September 17.
St George's failed to put players on the field for the second round game to the St Augustine on October 12 and for their encounter against El Dorado Secondary Comprehensive last Saturday.
And at the disciplinary committee meeting, St George's manager Rawle Carrington admitted that the would not be able to assemble a squad for the match-up with Hillview College.
The Sixth Avenue, Barataria school, represented by Carrington at the meeting, had first been given a stern warning and slapped with a $500 fine after they failed to field a team in their season-opening game against Arima Senior Comprehensive back on September 8.
The committee's decision on Tuesday virtually converted the East Zone league competition to a six-team competition from an original seven team affair.
Seepersad lamented the fact that the SSFL were forced to take this course of action.
"It is unfortunate and we feel bad for them," he told the Daily Express, but we are guided by the constitution and so they were suspended for the remainder of the season and banned for two years."
St George's will not be eligible to participate in the SSFL East Zone until 2008 and then they will have to pass through the process of re-applying and awaiting the consideration of the SSFL hierarchy before they know if they will be re-admitted.
The SSFL disciplinary committee ruled that all points/goals involving matches with St George's College were "null and void" and that the school was suspended for defaulting games of "12.10.05 and 15.10.05".
In other deliberated matters, Seepersad and company ruled that last Saturday's QRC/Fatima, which was determined to have been blown off five minutes earlier than regulation time, will be re-played Saturday at QRC grounds in St Clair.
The Express understands that the committee will reconvene today to consider matters involving SSFL South Zone campaigners Mayaro Composite and a protest by Hillview College against Malabar Composite concerning their October 15 match-up where it is alleged that Malabar fielded a player for that game who had been red-carded in their previous encounter with El Dorado on October 12.
The committee is also to deliberate on an alleged infraction by Presentation College Chaguanas player Anthony County, who is being accused of playing in a T&TFF Central Zone competition during the SSFL season, a contravention of the league's laws.
Today's SSFL matches
North Zone
Mucurapo v St Mary's at Fatima ground; Malick v Fatima at Hasely Crawford Stadium; St Anthony's v QRC at St Anthony's.
East Zone
Hillview v Arima at Marvin Lee Stadium; St Augustine v San Juan at St Augustine.
South Zone
Vessigny v Moruga at Vessigny; Mayaro v St Benedict's College at Mayaro; Fyzabad v Princes Town at Fyzabad.
