Taylor: Punishment a slap on the wrist

Games involving TT Super League club, FC Santa Rosa, might be forced to be postponed again as Joseph Taylor, president of the TT Football Referees Association, has indicated they have not ended their protest action against FC Santa Rosa coach Keith Look Loy.

On Sunday, officials boycotted Santa Rosa’s game away to Siparia Spurs, at the Palo Seco Velodrome, due to a pair of incidents involving Keith Look Loy, who is also president of the Super League.

Look Loy and Santa Rosa’s assistant coach Jovan Rochford were each handed one-game bans and $1,000 fines for using abusive language towards referee Cecile Hinds in a recent match.

But Taylor insisted yesterday evening that the punishment meted out to the duo was too lenient.

“You have to send a message to all coaches that abuse towards any kind of official – especially (one who serves) at the FIFA level – can not and would not be tolerated,” said Taylor, a former top assistant referee. “Giving a person a one-match ban and $1,000 is a slap on the wrist...our members feel very unsafe to still send anyone to do those games.”

Taylor believes a longer ban and stiffer fine should have been handed out.

“It is a deterrent for us to get it right. We have to set a very strong standard of what is acceptable. No matter what level he is at, a coach or the president of a League, he would be not seeing the field or coming close to coaching until next year.”

Taylor believes Look Loy has not learned his lesson and is wary of what referees might face in the future.

“Based on postings being made (on the Santa Rosa’s Facebook page), I think that can place my referees in a harmful environment.”

Taylor alleged there have been previous incidents of indiscipline towards officials by members of Santa Rosa’s technical staff but “the last incident was just totally overboard.”

He is calling for transparency in the process used by the Super League’s Disciplinary Committee to come to their decision.

“We have already expressed our concerns to the general secretary of the Super League (Camara David). After meeting with the Referees Committee, we’ll decide on the way forward. We’re definitely not happy and how they (dealt) with it is not sending the right message.”

The Siparia Spurs-Santa Rosa game has been rescheduled to this Sunday, at the Palo Seco Velodrome, from 3.30 pm. Santa Rosa’s other league games are against Police (December 3) and the University of Trinidad and Tobago (December 10).