St Benedict's take Derrel Garcia matter to SSFL arbitration committee

THE ramifications of the 2024 Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) premier division aren’t over just yet, as St Benedict’s have referred the registration matter involving star attacker Derrel Garcia to the league’s arbitration committee.

On December 30, the SSFL’s disciplinary committee stripped Benedict’s of 12 points from their premier division tally for the use of Garcia, who was deemed ineligible for four matches. The ruling knocked Benedict’s down from the premier division summit, with Fatima College moving to the top of the table.

Benedict’s appealed the league’s decision, but on January 10, the SSFL’s appeals committee of Rudolph Hope, Forbes Persaud and chairman Derek West upheld the ruling of the disciplinary committee and “unanimously agreed that St Benedict’s College failed to present sufficient information for the overturn of the decision of the disciplinary committee in this matter and therefore agreed that all sanctions applied as a consequence, stand.”

St Benedict’s were informed of the appeals committee’s decision on January 13.

Given a January 16 deadline to formally appeal the decision by the appeals committee, SSFL president Merere Gonzales told Newsday that St Benedict’s did indeed send a letter to the league on January 16, for the matter to be taken to arbitration. Up to press time, Gonzales said he was unable to name the members of the arbitration committee or indicate when they would meet.

With two key decisions in the ongoing matter already going against St Benedict’s, Newsday asked the school’s acting principal Gregory Quan Kep if they were confident of receiving a different verdict with the arbitration committee.

Quan Kep simply replied, “no comment.”

Making the submission on behalf of the school at the appeal hearing on January 7, Quan Kep opined that the report submitted by the disciplinary committee contained incorrect information regarding Garcia’s first date of attendance for the school term, claimed that Article 16 of the league’s constitution on player registration was ambiguous and lacked clarity, and also claimed bias and inequitable treatment against the school in the case.

St Benedict’s submissions weren’t supported by the appeals committee, who found Garcia’s registration to be incomplete and “unanimously agreed that there was no inequality of treatment and or bias during the process of this inquiry.”

For the 2024 saeson, Garcia played three games before his first attendance of the school term on October 8. He also played in a 2-1 win against Queen’s Royal College on October 9. Benedict’s were stripped of points for the abovementioned games.

Last year, both Miracle Ministries Pentecostal High School and Moruga Secondary found favour in the arbitration committee when they were reinstated as respective central and south championship division winners after being initially found guilty of registration breaches by the league’s disciplinary and appeals committees.

In 2025, Benedict’s will hope they can have a similar outcome.