GASA and North East Football League to co-operate

The Georgetown Area Sports (GASA) and the North East Football League have been mandated to co-operate for the immediate betterment of the sport, namely football in the north east belt of the mainland.{{more}}

The two entities, GASA, headed by Trevor Huggins and the North East Football League, which has Otashie Spring as its chair, have been involved in an administrative tug-o-war for the past nine months over legitimacy of the football league that is held annually at the Chili Playing Field.

The protracted impasse attracted the attention of parliamentary representative for the area Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, who asked Minister of Tourism, Sports and Culture Cecil Mc Kie to be mediator.

Mc Kie confirmed to SEARCHLIGHT last Saturday that a meeting was staged between the two heads on October 7, with a view to firming up decisions made at a previous meeting.

“As it stands now in the short-term, both parties have been advised to work together and both GASA and the North East Football will plan the upcoming North East Football League… They will incorporate both sets of members on the planning committee,” Mc Kie revealed.

Mc Kie also disclosed that GASA has been charged with the developmental aspects of overall sports in the area.

Meanwhile, Spring will go ahead and chair the upcoming North East Football League, which will get going as soon as the Chili Playing Field is handed over by the National Lotteries Authority.

SEARCHLIGHT has also been informed that GASA will soon be hosting a netball competition and a road tennis competition.

It is also expected that following the completion of the respective competitions, another attempt would be made to unify the two entities, once they are willing to do so.

The fight over legitimacy of the North East Football League came to the fore in January this year, when Spring’s North East Football League made it public that a petition signed by several teams/clubs which participated in the 2014 and 2015 tournaments had requested a extraordinary meeting on January 23, inclusive of elections.

During that same period, Huggins, who has been a long-standing chairperson of the North East Football League, provided a press release, announcing a revival of GASA and presenting the new executive body.

Similarly, Spring’s North East Football League also informed that they too had a full executive in place at elections overseen by president of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation (SVGFF), the organization’s general secretary acting – Raymond Trimmingham and an observer named Lloyd Smith.

The SVGFF then sanctioned Spring’s North East Football League as the entity it had recognized.

Spring is the current first vice-president of the SVGFF, while Huggins served as general secretary of the SVGFF from 2011 to August 2015, when he was fired by president Venold Coombs.(RT)