Samuel: Grays Green League will survive without official referees

One member of the organising committee for the Anderson E. Carty Grays Green Community Football League, Micah Samuel, said they will continue to utilise former players in a refereeing capacity should it prove difficult to contract official referees for future leagues.
“I am telling you this, it is a community league and not an ABFA league and we can get Caja [George Warner], we can get Swango [Francis Mark] and we can get about 40 other people who are willing and I will trust the people that we contact, I am trusting that they will do a good job so we can call on people out there in the society who come from a football background to officiate these matches,” he said.
His comment follows the controversial “sacking” of the league’s referees coordinator, Ken Pennyfeather, after he reportedly informed Samuel he had to pay for a third referee ahead of the league’s final staged last Saturday at the King George V Ground. 
Samuel labelled Pennyfeather disrespectful in his response to the request.
“I called him at about 6:45 one morning on the finals and said to him that we need a third referee for the finals and he replied by saying, ‘me nah do you no favour, if you want a third man you going to have to pay for um’ and remember we gave the man [Pennyfeather] an extra $420,” he said.
“Even if he had said in a polite way that Micah, you’re going to have to pay for the third man then I wouldn’t mind but he mash my corn [offended me] and you know that if you are over anything that you have to dictate to the people who basically are involved in it,” he added.
Samuel, a former national coach, said that at this point he is not concerned over whether the league will ever attract certified referees in the future.
“I don’t care, as I am speaking on this Thursday  [yesterday] morning between the hours of 9 and 10 o’clock, I don’t care. As a matter of a fact, as it pertains to the referees, we really have no issues with the referees but we have issues with a particular individual whom I contracted and I deliberately picked out of a group of officiators and said ‘I want you to carry this league as it relates to being the coordinator of the referees,’” he said.
Pennyfeather, in a previous interview, had denied claims that the $3,000 paid at the start of the league had covered all matches, stating that the amount was only for the preliminary round and did not include the playoff matches leading into the finals.
The referee said also that the officials took a pay cut to ensure the matches were properly officiated.