Chaguanas North protests Caps’ InterCol trophy win

On Friday, Chaguanas North wrote a letter of protest signed by its principal Premlal Seecharan and head coach Nicholas Griffith to general secretary of the Secondary Schools’ Football League, Azaad Khan, alleging that Carapichaima East fielded an ineligible player during the Central Zone InterCol final a day before, which Carapichaima won 3-1.

Griffith claims Carapichaima East fielded a player in the final, who he says should have been suspended for the final after receiving a yellow card during the semifinal against Presentation College. Griffith said he and his players sat waiting to play in the second semifinal double-header match, they all witnessed the player receive the yellow card.

The player in question is Keon Brown, who was confirmed as having received a yellow card during Carapichaima’s quarterfinal match against Tabaquite Secondary on November 10.

Three days after submitting the first letter, Griffith again wrote to Khan alleging that the referee’s report did not correctly identify the player who he said did in fact receive the only yellow card of the match. Griffith wrote: “We witness(ed) Keon Brown #27 giving away a penalty to Presentation for a handled ball; at this instance, he was not carded. However, earlier he made a tackle which was dangerous and he was immediately cautioned by the referee.”

That claim, however, was not substantiated in the referee’s report of the match, which had Kadiz Chandler as the only player booked in the semifinal. The match was officiated by David Ramkhelawan. Griffith added: “This (yellow) was the only card that the school received. However, in this report, it reflects Kadiz Chandler #3. To our knowledge, this (is) quite inaccurate and our request is that, as referee chair, you contact all persons who officiated on the game and get clarity of the matter and bring closure to this information which is presented.”

Griffith said he is yet to receive a response from Khan. The referee’s report is supposed be submitted to Khan within a 24 hour period, along with a match commissioner’s report. When Guardian contacted Khan, he said he was yet to view the card but was basing his response on the information provided to him by Lawrence Seepersad, the league’s assistant secretary in charge of operations.

The Guardian understands that the referee’s report was in the possession of Seepersad up to yesterday since the day the match was played on November 17. Seepersad, a teacher at Carapichaima East, is also responsible for assigning match commissioners to InterCol matches.

Khan admitted that he was supposed to receive the card from Seepersad, but said the delay was caused by weather conditions. He said there was no urgency in receiving the match report as it contained nothing out of the ordinary. “As far as I’m aware, the match report does not state that he (Brown) was yellow carded. Therefore, he was not suspended for the final,” Khan said.

Griffith, who filed the protest without viewing the referee’s report said he was convinced that Brown was the player who in fact received the yellow, and when he (Griffith) subsequently viewed a copy of the match report on Monday, he was surprised by what was contained on the card. Ramkhelawan was contacted yesterday and asked if he viewed the match card to spot any discrepancies.

The referee responded saying he verified that the signature on the match card was indeed his and said that “if someone forged my signature, they did a very good job.”

He also verified that all information contained in the card was what he wrote but could not confirm or deny if the player who was identified on the match card was not the player who was actually carded, due to the time lapse. Thus, he said he could not suggest that the match card was tampered with.

The Guardian tried unsuccessfully to contact Seepersad yesterday. Carapichaima East is scheduled to face South Zone winner St Benedict’s College tomorrow in the first InterCol semifinal at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella.