The MBU/PLCA saga
DESPITE Montego Bay United backing down from their threats to boycott the first three rounds of the Red Stripe Premier League, which kicked off last weekend, one feels that this drama is far from over.
Orville Powell, the owner and president of MBU, who has been a thorn in the side of the Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA) since joining the league four years ago, only announced late Monday that the club would honour their opening round fixtures against Reno at the Montego Bay Sports Complex.
As a result, the planned opening of Monday Night’s live game had to be scrapped, while the equipment and personnel associated with the event returned to Kingston, as fans were allowed in the game free of charge.
As to who will pay for the light and use of the facilities, I suspect we will also hear about that soon.
Truth be told, Powell and MBU had little choice but to honour their fixtures against Reno, the one next week Thursday against Waterhouse and then the one against Boys’ Town at home the following Wednesday.
Failure to do so would result in the team being expelled from the Premier League and banned for five years; the players’ contracts would be taken over by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), thus allowing them to go to other teams.
Additionally, the fines against the club would have added up to close to $1.5 million.
This would be a sad, nay, stupid way for this saga to end, given that Powell and others had forced the JFF into an emergency meeting last Friday to try to sort out the myriad of issues a number of clubs have with the PLCA.
To boycott the games would also be tantamount to bringing the game into disrepute, and if Powell had any ideas of appealing any injustice, he would have in theory, handicapped himself before he even started the process.
No one can deny that MBU, Sporting Central Academy and the other clubs all have valid arguments, most we know, some we don’t. But diplomacy cannot be thrown away and block road/burn tyres mentally introduced.
My first question when I heard about the boycotting of the competition was why should the players and coaching staff, who have given so much and were looking forward to the start of the season, be sacrificed.
It was interesting that the other clubs involved in the protests all showed up for their games on Sunday which in any language said they were not willing to sacrifice their players or clubs even while they negotiated for a more level playing field in the RSPL.
As I said earlier, MBU’s militancy will not be allowed to slide under the carpet and forgotten, the sponsors and the PLCA would have lost a lot of money — a commodity they don’t have enough of — with Monday’s game not being broadcast.
This will not sit well, and one can only wonder what the relationship with MBU and the PLCA will be, moving ahead. We can only hope that football will be the winner in the end.