Games involving TT Super League club, FC Santa Rosa, might be forced to be postponed again as Joseph Taylor, president of the TT Football Referees Association, has indicated they have not ended their protest action against FC Santa Rosa coach Keith Look Loy.
On Sunday, officials boycotted Santa Rosa’s game away to Siparia Spurs, at the Palo Seco Velodrome, due to a pair of incidents involving Keith Look Loy, who is also president of the Super League.
Look Loy and Santa Rosa’s assistant coach Jovan Rochford were each handed one-game bans and $1,000 fines for using abusive language towards referee Cecile Hinds in a recent match.
But Taylor insisted yesterday evening that the punishment meted out to the duo was too lenient.
“You have to send a message to all coaches that abuse towards any kind of official – especially (one who serves) at the FIFA level – can not and would not be tolerated,” said Taylor, a former top assistant referee. “Giving a person a one-match ban and $1,000 is a slap on the wrist...our members feel very unsafe to still send anyone to do those games.”
Taylor believes a longer ban and stiffer fine should have been handed out.
“It is a deterrent for us to get it right. We have to set a very strong standard of what is acceptable. No matter what level he is at, a coach or the president of a League, he would be not seeing the field or coming close to coaching until next year.”
Taylor believes Look Loy has not learned his lesson and is wary of what referees might face in the future.
“Based on postings being made (on the Santa Rosa’s Facebook page), I think that can place my referees in a harmful environment.”
Taylor alleged there have been previous incidents of indiscipline towards officials by members of Santa Rosa’s technical staff but “the last incident was just totally overboard.”
He is calling for transparency in the process used by the Super League’s Disciplinary Committee to come to their decision.
“We have already expressed our concerns to the general secretary of the Super League (Camara David). After meeting with the Referees Committee, we’ll decide on the way forward. We’re definitely not happy and how they (dealt) with it is not sending the right message.”
The Siparia Spurs-Santa Rosa game has been rescheduled to this Sunday, at the Palo Seco Velodrome, from 3.30 pm. Santa Rosa’s other league games are against Police (December 3) and the University of Trinidad and Tobago (December 10).
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Referees blank Santa Rosa FC as Look Loy continues attack.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).
There will be no officials at FC Santa Rosa’s remaining matches in League One of the T&T Super League, although its coaches Keith Look Loy and Jovan Rochford were each slapped with a one-match ban and a $1, 000 fine this week.
Joseph Taylor, head of a two-member referees Appointment Committee said it is difficult for him to appoint any referees to matches involving Look Loy, as he believes the former national player and coach received a slap on the wrist from the Disciplinary Committee of the TTSL, and has since been continuing his attack on officials by degrading them.
Taylor said he is terribly disappointed with the punishment given to Look Loy and his assistant, and intends to write to David John-Williams, president of the T&T Football Association and Camara David, general secretary of the T&TSL, to vent his feelings. Quizzed on whether any referees will be used at Santa Rosa’s games to end the season, Taylor said, “The Super League general secretary and Look Loy will have to convince me that both parties can work with the referees to progress the sport. You cannot be on a campaign abusing and berating my referees, and then turn around and ask them to do your matches.”
Look Loy’s FC Santa Rosa is scheduled to be involved in a revised fixture with Siparia Spurs on Sunday at Palo Seco and will be at its Arima Velodrome home for its final two games against Police FC and the University of T&T over the next two weekends.
Taylor believes Look Loy’s out-burst against one of the organizations woman officials in a match between his team and Hydro Tech Guaya United at the Velodrome on November 5 was the last straw. To date women referees still feel unsafe to do Santa Rosa’s games. “We know that our referees are not perfect and we have work to do, but coming after complaints by Tobago referees on Look Loy and then the Guaya game, I think he went over board”, explained Taylor.
Boni Bishop, the other member of the referees’ appointment committee pointed to the laws of the game which states referees are not liable for referees safety during matches. She confirmed that a decision was taken not to appoint referees for Santa Rosa matches after a report of abuse by its members.
“Some referees complained that they feel threatened for their lives”, Bishop said. Contacted Look Loy said he is convinced Taylor, Bishop and the referee’s committee are not sincere, and are instead waging a personal attack on him and his club by committing extortion on the league. He believes they are attempting to paint him as a kind of gangster that will turn his TTSL members against him.
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