Former FA presidency hopeful, Keithroy Black, believes body erred in promoting six teams

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Keithroy Black
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By Neto Baptiste

Former football association presidency hopeful, Keithroy Black, has lent his voice to the ongoing debate over the body’s decision to add six new teams to its top flight competition after being forced to prematurely end the 2019/20 domestic competitions in March due to the global Covid 19 pandemic.

Black, who unsuccessfully challenged sitting president Everton Gonsalves in 2017, said that increasing the Premier Division by more than 50 percent could work against the quality of play at that level.

“When we look at what we have in terms of quality I simply don’t think we have enough quality for that, so it simply means that we are going to be sending clubs to import even more players in this hard guava crop time if you want to see a good quality at the Premier Division level because that is the main area for me; I think it’s a bit too much,” he said.

In October, the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association (ABFA) announced it had ruled the 2019/20 domestic season null and void. It also said that as part of a move to restructure the Premier Division, six teams will be promoted from the First Division which would see the top flight move from 10 to 16 teams ahead of the next possible season.

Black, former president of the Tryum FC, said that although he understands that the association was wedged between a rock and a hard place they may have over-compensated.

“I understand the situation that they found themselves in, but at the end of the day, if they didn’t want to wait it out then fine, but I just think that six clubs are too many because that’s over 50 percent or to be exact, 60 percent of what is there,” he said.

Six Second Division teams, three from Zone A and three from Zone B, were also promoted during the restructuring efforts of the ABFA and will play in the First Division.

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