By Neto Baptiste
Football coach within the Ministry of Sports, Elvis “Reptile” Anthony, is accusing the coordinator of schools’ football – and his direct supervisor – Rowan “Porridge” Benjamin, of being biased and unfair while officiating school matches. He also criticised the department for dropping the proverbial ball where it pertains to equipping coaches with the tools necessary to get the job done.
Last Thursday, Anthony’s Potters Primary School lost to TN Kirnon Primary on penalties in the semifinals of the primary schools’ football competition, but is of the opinion that Benjamin should not have officiated in the match given his position as the coordinator.
“I was the only undefeated team out there in Liberta and when I was playing with seven minutes left in the game, and the score was 5-4, and Porridge [Benjamin] blew off the game, it was then I realised that something was not right because he wanted me to lose; he didn’t want me to be undefeated. I am so sick of how he handles things as a supervisor, and I don’t want to work with him anymore. I would prefer getting a transfer from the Ministry of Sports because no matter what the coaches do, he goes behind their backs and changes it; if we make a decision he will change it,” he said.
Anthony, a former national goalkeeper, went further to accuse the sports ministry of failing to provide coaches with the equipment needed to get the job done.
“Here it is that we are coaches and when we are going into the schools we don’t even have balls, we don’t have cones, we don’t have whistles to get this job done. They want us to go out there and give our all, but when we ask them for balls they are telling us to go to business places to get balls. It is the Ministry of Sports should have the equipment for us to do our work, and yet still they jump up and say that we don’t do our work,” the coach said.
However, Benjamin denied Anthony’s claims that he is running a one man show and urged the coach to utilise the proper channels when airing his grievances.
“I certainly couldn’t run this competition as a one man show and as a matter of a fact, I would have to sit down and spend sleepless nights putting things together, making proposals to the group. I was also made to understand that we don’t meet as a unit and we don’t meet often, but the last meeting we had was the 4th of May where we nailed down everything in terms of the finals, the date and where it would be played and so on,” he said.
“Mr Anthony, I believe, is a bit bitter at the present moment and I think he should get over it. We normally have our meetings after our tournaments and that’s where he should air his views,” the coordinator said.
Golden Grove Primary won the Primary Schools Football Competition over TN Kirnon in Monday’s final at the Rising Sun ground.
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