Time runs out on Wadada for MBU play-off contest
Wadada United’s “failure to complete the registration on time” has resulted in the cancellation of today’s scheduled Jamaica Premier League (JPL) play-off against fellow St James club Montego Bay United (MBU), the Jamaica Observer was told on Monday.
Ian Kemble, head of competitions at the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), confirmed that the one-off, winner-takes-all game to decide which team will replace the University of the West Indies FC for December’s start of the 2021-22 has been scrapped.
“We could not keep waiting forever,” Kemble told the Observer. He said the competitions’ body had extended the deadline for the game from September 27 to October 1, and noted that “MBU met their obligations at the first deadline”.
Kemble said the game has been ruled as “forfeited”, with Montego Bay taking the promotion spot.
Wadada United (formerly Wadadah FC), who were always racing against the clock to get paperwork in order for them to play the game, came up just short at the last hurdle. Time ran out on them to register their players in the online platform at 5:00 pm on Friday.
They had managed to get the team registered by the Companies of Jamaica Office, got the name change approved by the St James Football Association and opened a bank account in the club’s new name.
MBU will return to the island’s top club competition after they were relegated in the 2019-20 season.
Wadada told the Observer last week they had sought legal advice and were still pursuing the matter.
When contacted on Monday, Orville Powell, chairman of MBU, said while they were looking forward to returning to the competition, described the feeling as “bittersweet”.
“I personally did not like the circumstances,” he said, noting he was aware of the efforts made by the Wadada management.
“Both of us are from the same area and I know what they had to do to get back and how close they came, Daniel [Ricketts, the Wadada head coach) put on some serious efforts and I feel we were set up against each other and I did not like that,” he added.
The outspoken Powell said had Wadada managed to make the deadline, MBU would not have played the game.
“There have been too many compromises in the [just completed premier] league and I am not sure that Wadada, based on their finishing third in the last qualification competition, was the team that was to get the spot left vacant,” he said.