THE SECONDARY Schools Football League (SSFL) yesterday revealed their ruling on a pair of matters involving two footballers who played in the 2016 season - Abdus Ramcharan of East Mucurapo Secondary and fellow defender Kori Cupid of Presentation College in San Fernando - but were ineligible.
In a media release issued yesterday, the SSFL stated, “two matters (that) were raised by two schools, which after review by both the Credential and Disciplinary Committees resulted in the reversal of the final results.” Regarding the issue with Ramcharan, “the Committees, including the Appeals, upheld the decision that Abdus only having three subjects in Lower Six (contrary to League Rules) is not eligible to represent his school as a player in the League.” As a result, the October 6 encounter between East Mucurapo and St Benedict’s was reversed from 2-1 in East Mucurapo’s favour with St Benedict’s being handed the win 3-0.
Four subsequent matches involving East Mucurapo saw the scores switched to 3-0 in their opponents’ favour - October 8 against Fatima, October 12 against QRC, October 15 against Trinity and October 26 against Fyzabad.
Cupid’s status as a student, having wrote the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exam in 2008, was raised by Naparima College.
“Both the Credential and Disciplinary Committees ruled that Kori is not eligible to represent his school as a player in the League because he could have been in the system for more than eight years.” As a consequence, the scores in four matches involving Presentation San Fernando were reversed to 3-0 in their opponents’ favour - September 10 against Fatima, September 21 against East Mucurapo, September 24 against QRC and September 28 against Naparima.
The ruling by the SSFL Credential and Disciplinary Committees sees reigning Intercol champions San Juan North slip into the relegation zone despite not having done anything illegally as teams below them benefited from 3-0 default wins to leapfrog them in the standings.
Revised SSFL Standings
Teams.........................................................Points
Shiva Boys.........................................................37
Naparima............................................................32
St Anthony’s........................................................28
Presentation San Fernando.......................................................23
Fyzabad..............................................................23
Signal Hill...........................................................20
St Augustine.......................................................20
Trinity College.......................................................20
St Mary’s.............................................................20
QRC...................................................................15
Fatima................................................................15
St Benedict’s.......................................................15
San Juan North.......................................................11
Pleasantville.......................................................10
East Mucurapo.......................................................7
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