T&T Football Federation “Champion of Champions” competition kicks off today without the involvement of a club from the Central Football Association (CFA).
In the two matches on schedule from 3.30 pm, Stokley Vale (Tobago) will entertain Siparia Spurs (South) at Plymouth Recreation Ground, while Valtrin United (East) meets Petit Valley Utd (North) at Valsayn Recreation Ground.
Valencia United was due to meet the CFA’s Leeds United in the other match, however the latter was denied a spot in the tournament by an injunction filed earlier this month by Strugglers.
Both the CFA and Strugglers have since failed to come to an amicable solution through arbitration, which will see no Central club being involve.
On Monday, the CFA Appeals Committee ruled against Strugglers, which had protested the outcome of the football association’s final league standings last year.
In its protest, Struggles contended that two protests put forward against league champions Leeds United and Predators FC, were not dealt with properly, which eventually cost it the league title.
As a result the club filed a court order to stop the T&T Football Federation CoC competition which was set to begin on January 6.
Leeds was to represent Central in the six-team round-robin series. Both the CFA and Strugglers were set to go before San Fernando High Court Madame Justice Judith Jones on Tuesday, however the matter was withdrawn by Strugglers on the said morning.
Contacted for comment, CFA president Brian Layne said based on latest developments the CoC will begin without a representative from Central.
“Since the Appeals Committee meeting on Monday we have been in contact with representatives of Strugglers in an effort to get the matter resolved so that the association would have been represented in the CoC,” said Layne.
The CFA president said should the matter be resolved within the next week, he will ask the T&TFF if it will be possible to fit the representative team into the fixtures.
“There is a break for Carnival and as CFA president all I can do is ask the T&TFF Competitions Committee if it will consider adjusting the fixtures to accommodate our CFA representative,” added Layne.
Earlier this week, T&TFF secretary of the Competitions and Tournament Committee, Neville Ferguson said failure by both parties to settle the matter will result in the tournament being played without a representative from Central.
The five competing clubs are all winners of the respective associations Stokely Vale (Tobago FA), Siparia (Southern FA), Valtrin (Eastern FA), Petit Valley (Northern FA) and Valencia (Eastern Counties Football Union).
At the end of the round-robin series, the top two clubs will be promoted to the bmobile National Super League.