Jamaica Premier League outfit Chapelton Maorons have been punished for failing to turn up for their fixture with Mount Pleasant Academy at the Effortville Community Centre on Sunday.
The Maroons, who fired experienced head coach Lenworth Hyde last week, were unable to field an 11 due to many players being unavailable.
Notably, the Maroons squad is made up mostly of schoolboys and the JPL has a rule that does not allow a team to field more than five amateurs to a team per match.
Before his dismissal, Hyde noted that this rule will put the team in a tough situation, especially since if the players sign professional contracts, they will be ineligible for overseas scholarship opportunities.
Match Commissioner Anthony Gibbs said he had not gotten any correspondence from Chapelton nor the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) for the absence of the Clarendon-based team.
The JFF announced the sanctions in a release on Monday:
“The Competitions Committee of the JFF has handed down sanctions to Chapelton Maroons who failed to turn up for their JPL fixture versus Mount Pleasant FC at the Effortville Community Center on Sunday, January 22.
The Maroons are currently twelfth in the 14-team JPL table with eight points from 10 games.