Minors: BFA wrong to give Wolves the boot
Vincent Minors Jr, the Wolves striker, has heavily criticised the Bermuda Football Association’s decision to kick his side out of the Player Development League Festive Tournament yesterday.
Wolves were disqualified for fielding too many over-age players against BAA Wanderers on Saturday when they won 3-2. As a result, BAA took their place in the last four against PHC Zebras.
Minors had been unaware of the BFA’s decision until contacted by The Royal Gazette yesterday. The 33-year-old, who scored his team’s winner against BAA, questioned the timing of the BFA’s decision, which was announced less than six hours before last night’s semi-final.
“I have to ask this question, ‘If we lost the game, would we be in this position?’ ” an agitated Minors said. “We are preparing for the semi-final.
“It was good game, we won, and that should be the end of that. At the final whistle, no one from BAA or the BFA came and said we are in breach of rules.”
Minors, who captains the Wolves first team, maintains that his club did not violate the tournament’s rules.
“We aren’t happy at all, to say the least,” he said. “They are saying we fielded over-age players, but we didn’t have more than three on the field at any given time.
“We know the rules and we followed them, so it is interesting to see who said what to get us kicked out.”
He also suggested that part of the blame lay squarely at the feet of the fourth official and match commissioner. “The officials and match commissioner were right there as we shook hands when the game was done,” he said.
“This is why they have officials and player cards and all that stuff on hand, so that there are not discrepancies and we all know the situation.
“You can’t come out days after and say you’re kicking someone out.
“I would like to know what they heard because if we did have too many [over-age] players going on, someone could have told us prior, or even after we committed the offence, not days later.”
Regulations restrict teams to five players older than 23, but only three can be on the field at any given time.
