Unpaid schoolboy football referees upset

Even as they ready themselves for the new schoolboy football season which is due in two months, referees from the corporate area are yet to be fully compensated for the past season, STAR Sports understands.

Chairman of the Kingston and St Andrew Referees Group, Malica Reid, confirms that his referees have not been compensated for the preliminary round of the Manning Cup matches they conducted.

"We have not received total payment for the preliminary round, we only received a portion. Last Friday we got some money for the Under 16 and 14 competitions but still have not received full payment for the matches," Reid said.

Reid believes a change in the payment arrangement with ISSA and the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) is the cause of the problem.

"The current arrangement is for ISSA to pay the JFF, and JFF pays the referees through the parishes associations," Reid explained. "I am not sure if the entire money has been paid over by ISSA, but we never used to have this problem before."

According to Reid, the previous arrangement had ISSA paying the Referees' Association directly, but the JFF intervened mid-way through of the first round of the schoolboy football season.

"Since this happened, that is where the problem comes, in because we had a perfect working relationship with ISSA," Reid said.

Calls to Victor Stewart's (JFF Referees Department manager) cell phone went unanswered.