All Saints United and FC Aston Villa are now level on points at the top of the table after week 14 of the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association (ABFA) Premier League held at the ABFA Technical Centre in Pynter.
All Saints United moved to 34 points from 14 matches with a 2-0 win over Willikies on Sunday.
Shafeeq Joseph and Daryan James got the goals for the new league leaders in the 57th and 77th minutes, respectively.
FC Aston Villa boast a similar record in 14 matches thanks to a 1-0 win over Piggott’s Bullets on Saturday.
The game seemed to be heading for a draw before Shahoi Dorsett sealed the crucial three points for Villa with a 95th minute penalty.
Former leaders Grenades are now third, one point behind All Saints and FC Aston Villa after suffering a 1-4 defeat at the hands of Greenbay Hoppers on Sunday.
The Hoppers went 4-0 up in the span of 28 minutes as Rodney Lawrence (26’), Javorn Stevens (31’), a 45th minute Chad Williams own goal and an Akeem Christian own goal in the 54th sealed the fate for Grenades.
They got a consolation goal through Barrington Blake in the 56th minute. The Hoppers are now fifth with 21 points from 13 games.
Old Road is fourth, nine points behind Grenades after a 5-1 win over Swetes in the week’s opening game on Friday.
It was Swetes who took an early lead when Shackwon Simon scored in the 16th minute.
Stefan Smith equalized for Old Road eight minutes later and the teams went into half-time with no further goals added.
Things changed quickly in the second half as Jaheim Hazelwood gave Old Road the lead six minutes after the restart before a Raheem Deterville double in the 61st and 71st minutes gave them a 4-1 advantage. Jabarry Chandler put the final nail in the coffin in the 88th minute. Swetes are sixth in the table with 21 points from 14 games.
Saturday’s other matches saw Empire beat Ottos Rangers 3-0 and Parham secure a 3-1 win over Cedar Grove Blue Jays.
Empire’s goals came from Rakeem Joseph in the seventh minute, Nyque Watkins in the 13th minute and Shemar Scott in the 45th minute.
They are now 10th in the league with 17 points from 13 games while Ottos Rangers are eighth with 19 points from 13 outings.
Parham took the lead J’Twan Brown in the 45th minute before Malcolm Stewart doubled the lead in the 48th minute. The Blue Jays got a lifeline in the 50th minute through a Keon Greene penalty before Stewart got his second of the game in the 81st minute to secure the win.
With 15 points from 14 games, Parham are now 12th in the standings while their opponents are 14th with 10 points from 13 matches.
Sunday’s other game saw Liberta Blackhawks and SAP combine for 12 goals, with the latter securing an 8-4 win.
Shavorn Phillip gave the Blackhawks the lead in the 28th minute before SAP equalized through Tyrique Tonge in the 30th. It was 2-1 Liberta a minute later as Louron Anthony scored before SAP equalized once again, this time through Danniel Osbourne in the 42nd minute.
The only word to adequately describe the second half was ‘goal-fest.’
Fifteen minutes after the resumption, Tonge got his second of the game to give SAP their first lead before Phillip got his second of the game a minute later for Liberta to make it 3-3.
SAP then broke the game open through a Peter Byers double in the 73rd and 77th minutes before Tonge got his third and fourth of the game in the 81st and 87th minutes to make in 7-3, effectively ending the game.
Malique Martin got Liberta’s fourth goal in the 89th minute but the scoring was capped off in the 90th minute when Byers completed his hat-trick, the second for SAP on the day.
SAP are now 11th in the table with 16 points from 13 games while the Blackhawks, with only two points from 11 games, are last in the standings.
Ninth-placed Tryum and 15th placed Five Islands will do battle on Monday to close out the game week.
After holding out for the past two weeks, Liberta Sports Club will play its first game in the Antigua and Barbuda Premier Division this Sunday but its president, Kenneth Benjamin, has continued to express his concerns over the silence of the Antigua and Barbuda Football Associations’ (ABFA) on the matter of player insurance.
Liberta has been at odds with the ABFA since earlier this year when it’s president wrote to the ABFA asking about the presidency of the association and insurance coverage for players for the 2022/2023 season of the Premier Division.
ABFA General Secretary Rohan Hector told Sportsmax.TV that President Everton Gonzales, who fell ill shortly after he was elected in April 2022, is still in charge and is aware of the daily running of the association as per his instructions.
A week ago, Hector said, Gonzales in a missive, sent word to the clubs updating them on football-related matters including plans to support the clubs with a second tranche of Covid-19 relief funds as well as additional support funding for the teams that have been without competition for two and half years prior to three weeks ago when competition resumed in the Premier Division.
However, Benjamin remains skeptical about the veracity of that missive and is even more concerned about the ongoing silence over player insurance.
Hector told Sportsmax.TV that the FA sent out a form to collect contact information from the players in an effort to speed up the process for new and more robust insurance coverage for players, coaches and officials in the premier division.
However, Benjamin claims that the association already had contact information for the players and that he does not believe that the players are covered even as the premier division enters its third week.
“A member club had a concern and they didn’t even have the courtesy to respond to us,” Benjamin told Sportsmax.TV in response to Hector’s claim and perceived threat about sanctioning Liberta with the possibility of expulsion from the league.
“Before the league, we wrote to them and said what is the situation with the insurance and they didn’t respond and we wrote and said we can’t let our players play without insurance they are working men and they haven’t responded up to now,” Benjamin said Wednesday.
“So for the first two games we didn’t turn up because they haven’t said anything to us. They sent a general email that is not addressing our issue.”
Benjamin indicated that the FA suggested that what the clubs must do is that if there is an injury, the club should spend the money for rehabilitation, submit an invoice and the FA would reimburse the club. This, Benjamin said, was not satisfactory.
“When we saw that we asked them, how much will be reimbursed back, what if someone gets injured in practice are they covered. All of these questions need to be answered before we just jump up and say okay,” he said.
“So those were our concerns, mainly insurance. They are trying to avoid this issue. That is not the way an association functions. All we wanted was a dialogue with them to clear up whether the players are covered.
“We are an organized club. We are not just a team. We have to answer to our members, auditors and all these things. We do those things so we want to know what is it that we are covered for, how much are you (the FA) going to give back if we spend x-amount of money.”
Liberta Sports Club could be facing expulsion from Antigua and Barbuda’s Premier Division after failing to turn up for its first two matches this season in protest over concerns about the administration of that country’s football association.
The league resumed two weeks ago after a Covid-19 enforced two-and-a-half-year hiatus but the Rowan Benjamin-managed club has yet to show up for any of their two games against All Stars United and Ottos Rangers FC, respectively, which leaves it at the mercy of the ABFA Disciplinary Committee that will meet in the coming days.
According to Rohan Hector, the ABFA General Secretary, the teams that Liberta was scheduled to play will likely be awarded points and the club could face expulsion from the competition.
“Rule 5.11; if a team does not report for a match except in the case of force majeure recognized by the executive committee or if it refused to continue to play or leave the ground before the end of the match the team will be considered having lost the match and three points awarded to the opponent 3-0,” he said.
He added that the guilty team shall, as a general rule, be subjected to disciplinary action as recommended by the disciplinary committee, which may include exclusion from further participation in the competition.
Liberta, meanwhile, is sticking to its guns while expressing concern over issues which they say the administration has not addressed leading up to the start of the competition.
Among those issues of concern is the appointment of an interim president after the incumbent Everton Gonzales fell ill shortly after he was elected in April 2022. In a letter dated, November 6, 2022, obtained by Sportsmax.TV, President of Liberta Sports Club Kenny Benjamin raised the issue regarding Gonzales’ absence.
“On April 25th 2022 the Antigua and Barbuda FA held its elections where Mr Everton Gonzales was elected as president,” Benjamin stated in the letter.
“Within the same week it was learnt via a radio talk show host that the president had left the country to seek medical assistance. Even at this time of penning this letter there has not been any communique’ from the ABFA to member clubs as to the president’s illness or his whereabouts, the person deputizing for the president as stipulated in the constitution.
“This can be seen as gross disrespect to the clubs and largely, the general public.”
According to the former West Indies bowler, seeing that President Gonzales has been out of office for the last six months, the constitution dictates that if the president is absent or unavailable, the longest serving vice-president available shall deputize.
He continued stating that according to the constitution, if the president is permanently or temporarily prevented from performing his official functions, the longest serving vice-president shall represent him/her until the next Congress.
According to the Benjamin brothers, up to early last week, this matter has not been addressed and there has been no communication informing the clubs of the situation.
However, Hector explained that while President Gonzales is ailing, he is still functioning in that capacity.
“The president, upon on recognizing his illness and was going away for treatment, issued instruction to his executive on how they were to proceed in his absence,” Hector said.
“So, the president was not incapacitated to the point where he is not aware or has not been involved or been in touch or nor kept apprised of things going on. He is constantly in contact.
“Secondly, there was an update that was sent out to the membership yesterday (Sunday, December 4), that completely deals with that issue has been addressed.”
Player insurance was another issue raised by the Liberta manager.
In a letter dated November 22, Liberta President Kenny Benjamin fired off a letter to the FA inquiring about insurance for players for the coming season.
“Liberta Sports Club is concerned about its members participating in the ABFA’s Premier Division and not been clear about insurance of the players,” the letter stated.
“We are therefore requesting all information and details about the insurance be available to the team manager Mrs. Diane Anthony before our team PIC Black Hawks participation.”
The club manager cited an incident from 2019 when a Liberta player lost a tooth during a match and the club was forced to spend approximately EC$12,000 or about USD$4000 in medical expenses, funds that took the FA some time to refund.
Hector debunked those assertions, stating that the FA paid directly for the cost of getting the player’s tooth repaired. In fact, the general secretary said, the invoice for the player’s dental care was generated on February 26, 2019 and the cheque for said amount was paid on March 3, 2019, less than a week later.
“The ABFA paid the dental surgeon directly to repair the young man’s injuries so this notion there was a reimbursement was completely untrue,” Hector said.
Regarding the wider issue of insurance for the players for the season, Hector explained that the FA has engaged a new insurance company that will provide even more robust coverage for players, coaches and team personnel for the 2022/2023 season.
In response, the FA sent out a form requesting individual player contact information in a bid to speed up the process of getting everyone insured, Hector explained.
He said what would usually happen is that each club would forward each player’s name using their club’s contact information. However, with the new insurer, the coverage required contact information for each individual player. As such, the FA sent out forms to the clubs requesting said information for each individual player.
“We did not want to slow down the process,” said Hector, who noted that of 43 club teams playing football in Antigua, Liberta was the only club holding out at the start of the new season.
“I want to take this opportunity to thank the other 42 teams for returning Antigua and Barbuda football after a lay-off of two and a half years, to not wonderful support from not only the clubs but also the fans who have turned out in massive numbers to support football in 2022/2023.”
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