Sport

NPL teams wary of new format

By AINSLEY WALTERS, Staff Reporter

Bradley Stewart and Anthony Williams - file

MATCH-FIXING COULD infiltrate the 'straight league format' being implemented by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) for its new Wray and Nephew Premier League season.

Although in support of a genuine league system in which champions are crowned on most points earned, prominent players in the local football fraternity also believe the new format could be open to sports fraud.

Vin Blaine, team manager at Harbour View, along with veteran coach Bradley Stewart, both argue in support of a league format but agree the system could be manipulated.

The system being abandoned, a top-four semi-finals, has been criticised in recent times as a knockout within a league, prompting calls for the change.

Such a format, which has existed for years in local football, has at times been unfair to teams that dominate preliminary rounds on points but fail to make finals after being knocked out in semi-finals.

Blaine welcomes the change but is wary of match-fixing.

"I believe if a team ends up consistent over the entire season, earning most points, they should be rewarded," he said. "In a one-off play-off, a team can come up with a bad day," Blaine added before explaining a scenario which affected his team last season.

Tight race

"Harbour View, last year, won the league on points but never made it to the final," he pointed out. "Tivoli, who we had beaten throughout the season, beat us in the semi-finals and ended up in the final."

However, match-fixing, especially in a tight race for points near the end of the season, could open teams at the lower end of the standings to illegal offers to throw games against championship contenders.

"Yes, that's the drawback I've been looking at," Blaine admittted. "It can create some problems. If I would talk against it, that's the argument I would use."

"That's definitely a drawback but I have to lean to one side and hope the teams have enough integrity to go through a league system and not let other teams through," the Harbour View manager reasoned.

Stewart, a much-travelled veteran, questioned whether "anybody locally has the kind of funds to fix matches".

Loses interest

However, if presented with the money, there could be takers, he admitted.

"I am not ruling out the possibilities," he pointed out. "There could be takers but I don't know if the people who are running the teams at the moment have that kind of cash available."

Another coach, Anthony 'Follies' Williams of Montego Bay's Wadadah, said he opposed the new format because if there's a runaway leader in the standings, the league would become boring.

"I am not for it," he said. "I don't like the league system, I prefer semi-finals and a final. A league system does not determine which team has the most guts.

"I am not one who believes a competition should still be playing after the champions are decided. The final game should be the final. It loses interest with nothing to play for.

"With three of four games to go without any interest, that's just incurring costs and a lot of people won't turn up. The final game should be the final and all interest should be on the final game."

The 2005-2006 Wray and Nephew Premier League season is set to kick-off on September 11. The new format will feature two rounds, home and away, with two end-of-round finals. However, there will be no accompanying bonus points and the league winners will be determined by most points earned.

However, at the end of the league, the top eight teams will play for a separate trophy in an eventual knockout format.