And they are off!

No, it is not horse racing, but it is being likened to a zoo break, as footballers here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines have been given a free rein to sweat and play the sport without blinkers.{{more}}

Is it that all hell has broken loose in the administration of Football at the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation level? Is it that there is a free for all at this juncture?

I speak specifically of what I am hearing on the airwaves and what comes daily to my Inbox by way of my e-mail address.

To get straight to the point, the happenings in the 2010 NCB Barrouallie Football League must be untenable, when compared with what is being sold to the public that club Football is the best way to go. And, indeed it is.

It seems that anyone from anywhere can play for any team in that league. Or is it the Barrouallie league is an out of season competition?

Or have the keepers of national Football relaxed their rulings about one player to one club?

Many of our better and more promising national players from the major clubs: Hope International, Avenues United, System 3, just to name a few, are gallivanting in that Central Leeward town’s competition.

Whatever the case, we need not try to blarney anyone with window dressing about professionalism in the sport and paper trails that are meaningless.

As it is, St. Vincent and the Grenadines is a two by four place, so the popular footballers are known by almost everyone who follows the sport, and their names ring a bell to those who just listen to the many sports casts.

It seems as though all the who’s who in local Football are presently participating in the Barrouallie set up with gay abandonment.

Definitely, despite all the old talk of being tough on players who flout the rules, things have not changed one bit. In fact, some may say that it has become worse than before, a case of Football anarchy.

Certainly, those guys at the Executive level better not have the gall to tell others about professionalism and who needs to get whose house in order, as a complete make over of their dwelling place may be needed.

So have the players from some of the aforementioned clubs duly transferred to teams such as Maradonas, Layou United and Rillan Hill, to name a few?

Your playing field must be level, or appear to be so, when dishing out your decisions as to who is professional and who is not.

The bigger back lash is there to come, as the Executive will not be able to implement rules and regulations when necessary, as they would not have the moral authority to do so.

But the Barrouallie situation is not new, as it relates to the way the Executive of the SVGFF handles things.

I recently had reason to comment on the much touted National Club Championships which concluded very early this year, as enough monitoring of its day to day running was not carried out. Additionally, the plans, grandiose they turned out to be, were just decorative language.

They promised much, but little was delivered, except that the competition took place; there were winners and, of course, losers, and the prize monies were paid.

But can we continue in this vein and hope that things pan out in the way we want? Surely, if the FIFA officials that come on a regular basis hear about this, they will surely be crestfallen and may even discredit your proposals as being feint.

However, action must be taken or, for sure, you the Executive will be rechristened as “paper tigers”.

No paper tiger, as this column will love to see the complete removal of that Mound at the Sion Hill Playing Field.