Coombs to take legal action against suspended General Secretary

President of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation (SVGFF) Venold Coombs says he plans to take legal action against suspended general secretary Trevor Huggins.

Coombs, who was a guest of Nice Radio’s Sports Highlights last Sunday night, said his promised action against Huggins are for comments he alleges Huggins made on another interactive radio call-in programme about the sale of World Cup tickets.{{more}}

“…Ah going to take action against the station and that individual and I have contacted my son to start writing letters, and I am not joking about it,” the football boss said.

“He will talk to my lawyer,” Coombs said later.

When contacted by SEARCHLIGHT yesterday, Huggins said he was not aware of Coombs’ legal intent, but that he was not fazed by it.

A confident Huggins indicated that would not be afraid to make “revelations” about some of the alleged dealings within the operations of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation, if he were to be pushed.

Recounting his call to the National Broadcasting Corporation’s programme “Let’s Talk Sports” last Saturday night, Huggins confirmed that he, apart from making his identity known, inquired about the sale of the World Cup tickets and admitted that he asked about the whereabouts of part of the profits.

Huggins, who only a week ago was suspended from his post, said he questioned if some of the alleged profit has gone “into thin air.”

Meanwhile, Coombs, who could be heard shuffling papers while he was on air, stated that he had brought the documents to show as proof to the host of the radio programme Justin Douglas.

“The ninety something thousand came timely for the Under-20 to go (to) Cuba … The down payment was timely to go (to) Dominica…. Every cent that was sent for football was used for football … At no time I was solo … The executive was updated all along about this thing,” Coombs stated with his usual gusto.

Coombs, as he has done in recent times, spoke again of those within the organization, who are seeking to upset the progress of his administration.

“Every time I make a progressive effort to get funds for this country, you have a few elements who come out and behave negatively,” Coombs said.

The president’s account is consistent with what he said in an interview with SEARCHLIGHT, which was published on June 17, 2014.

“We got the tickets; in fact, we got just over 200, less than the 250 which were allocated to us… We sold them to another buyer and this money came in very handy…We are using the Under-20 to send to Cuba for the qualifiers later this month,” Coombs told SEARCHLIGHT then.

He confirmed as well that only a percentage of the ticket sales ended up in the coffers of the SVGFF.

In that same article, Coombs said that the actions of the SVGFF were legitimate and ethical.

“There is nothing wrong about doing that; it was done above board…That is a normal practice by countries like us…People here don’t buy the tickets … It is only one guy who works at the port, who came one day and inquired at the office, but he never came back,” Coombs stated.(RT)