General Secretary of the Antigua & Barbuda Football Association (ABFA) Gordon Derrick, has rebuffed claims he deliberately ignored a request from football dad, Devon Joseph, to write a letter of recommendation for his son and national youth footballer, Demiah Joseph.
According to Joseph, he had requested the letter prior to his son leaving for the Martin Luther King Jr. High School in the USA but said the General Secretary had promised to reach out to him but never did.
“It was after the election and I’ve come to the conclusion, I could be wrong, that it was because of the campaign, and as I said, I could be wrong, but I still believe it’s that. My son is now in school overseas and I want to say thanks to Debu [Rolston Williams] because I went to Debu myself and asked Debu to do the letter and I didn’t have to wait on them,” he said.
Hitting back however, Derrick who furnished the Daily Observer with a copy of the emails, said it was Joseph who neglected to furnish him with the necessary information requested.
“It’s a good thing I keep things because I have the entire email trace. He said his son is going to MLK [Martin Luther King] High School and he needs a reference letter and that was the email. I wrote back to him and told him that I need more information like who is he going to, what is his address and what is the situation,” the GS said.
“I said that since it is probably football, the letter is probably best if it came from the technical director. He [Devon] writes back to me and says ok and I have not heard back from him since,” he added.
The email showed a thread of messages between Derrick and Joseph in which the GS asked for additional information pertinent to the letter. Joseph replied “Ok” to Derrick’s request but there was no evidence of him sending the information via email.
Indicating that he wants nothing more to do with Joseph, Derrick added that he was made aware that Joseph received the requested letter from the technical director, Rolston Williams.
“Further, he got the letter because he came to the office and he went into Gwen [Salmon] and asked Gwen to get it organized with Debu. So he got the letter because I know everything that’s going on so I don’t know what nonsense he was saying. I can’t believe what I am hearing this morning,” he said.
Demiah represented Antigua & Barbuda at both the Under-15 and Under-17 levels.
Football Association GS denies snubbing football dad
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