Walking a fine line
RSPL clubs say unnecessary sanctions hurting budget
Vice-president of the Premier League Clubs Associations (PLCA), Carvel Stewart, says that unnecessary fines by the Professional Football Association of Jamaica (PFAJ) are putting a drain on the finances of the clubs in Jamaica’s top-flight football league, the Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL).
Stewart says that the subvention each club receives from the PLCA each month is so depleted after the subtraction of the fines from the PFAJ that it does not assist the clubs the way it should.
According to Stewart, some of the fines are unnecessary and should be discarded.
STAR Sports understands that a club was slapped with a hefty fine for not responding to an email on time.
“These fines reduce the amount of money that we hand over to the clubs. We start this year trying to ensure that the clubs get $400,000 every month, but they don’t receive the $400,000 because you have to pay fines out of it and you have to pay fees out of it and so on,” Stewart said.
NOT JUSTIFIED
“They come with some rules that don’t make sense. For instance, there are rules that say if there is a function and they (the clubs) don’t turn up, you pay a fine of some ridiculous $50,000 so on. That has happened to clubs recently. Now we are not saying that clubs should not attend the functions, but the fines are still not justified.”
He said: “One of the things is whenever you host a match you have to pay $10,000. For where we are now, I don’t think we should be paying that money.”
Last week, chairman of the PLCA, Edward Seaga, asked for the PFAJ to be removed from its post as administrators of the RSPL.