CHAMPIONS Claytons Kola Tonic Notre Dame endured yet another setback in the Barbados Football Association’s (BFA) Digicel Premier League on Tuesday night.
For the second straight match, Notre Dame footballers turned up at the Friendship, Hothersal, St Michael venue and were unable to kick a ball.
After last Sunday’s match against Ellerton was deferred because of a cricket match in the G4S Masters Tournament at the venue, the Dames could not believe their bad luck two days later when referee Edwin Adams ruled that the markings on the outfield were incorrect.
As a result, the Notre Dame versus Pinelands encounter for 6 p.m. and the second game between Paradise and Mackeson Brittons Hill will now have to be rescheduled.
Last Sunday, at Bridgefield, St Thomas, the match between St John Sonnets and Youth Milan was postponed because of a clash with cricket in the Best Of Barbados St Thomas Competition.
It means that Notre Dame have not taken the field since February 20 when their third-round game against Paradise, also at Bridgefield, came to a premature end when the match ball could not be located after it was knocked out of play.
“On behalf of the BFA, I would like to apologise to the clubs and fans for these incidents,” general secretary David Hinds told NATIONSPORT yesterday.
“The problem on Tuesday night was that the field was marked incorrectly by the National Sports Council (NSC). The referee reported that the markings were out of sync,” he said.
Hinds said that despite yesterday’s rains every effort would be made to have the correct markings done for today’s 6 p.m. match between ICE Wales and Pride of Gall Hill at Friendship.
“We are trying our best to work with the NSC and will have a BFA official and a referee present when the new markings are done as these glitches have set us back, having to reschedule these matches,” said Hinds adding that they could not use the National Stadium exclusively because of athletics taking place there.
He also disclosed that whereas the policy was to have additional balls at all match venues, the BFA has now decided to provide the match referee with two additional balls to avoid a recurrence of what took place at Bridgefield which led to the unfinished match between the Dames and Paradise.
