Coaches want accountability from refs

Vere United head coach Donovan Duckie and Tivoli Gardens head coach Philip Williams are demanding more accountability from Jamaica Premier League referees after recent incidents that have left them aggrieved.

After Vere's 1-0 defeat to Harbour View last Saturday, a visibly upset Duckie felt that his team was hard done by the decisions of centre referee Nerresa Goldson regarding questionable calls on the field. Tensions boiled over in the latter part of the game when Goldson overturned an initial throw-in decision to Vere United, which caused both teams to nearly come to blows.

Duckie said that the standard of officiating will set back local football if it is not addressed.

"All these players will at some point represent a Jamaican team and this is why we are not qualifying any team, because at the end of the day, to get the quality of the product, all the stakeholders have to be on par," he said after the game. "[That includes] the field that is conducive to a good style of play, the players, the coaches, the referees, who are the most important stakeholder in all of this.

"What did we see today? There was one team on the pitch. These games have to be reviewed. They cannot go unnoticed and I am imploring the people who are in authority to review these games. because we were cheated."

Williams, who was back on the touchline for Tivoli's 2-1 defeat to Waterhouse after a two-game suspension, said that coaches must be able to question certain decisions without threat of punishment, as he endured. Williams's suspension stemmed from his ejection against Dunbeholden on February 21, after allegedly making disparaging comments about the referee.

"The officiating is not the best and it can't be that whatever they do is absolute," he said. "We have to protest somewhere, somehow. And until referees are held accountable for what they do in Jamaica, we still have to give our protest whenever it is deemed necessary.

"I don't see why coaches and players can't question a call by the referee without fear of being carded or being red-carded at most."

Jamaica Football Federation Referees Department head, Victor Stewart, was unavailable for comment on the matter when contacted by STAR Sports.

Even with a win, Harbour View head coach Ludlow Bernard felt miffed at some of the decisions and how the game was managed with the escalating emotions.

"Because I am on the winning end of this trip, I don't have a lot of complaints but then again a lot of calls out there were quite questionable and I can understand coach Duckie's concern," Bernard said. "I think at some point, the referee needs to take charge of the game when you see it get heated."