Referee Anthony Francis, third from left, consults with Hamilton Parish and Wolves coaches Sergio Goater, right, and Vince Minors Jr, second from left. (Photograph by Colin Thompson)
The Premier Division match between Hamilton Parish and fellow relegation candidates Wolves was postponed because of a lack of assistant referees after both teams had arrived at Wellington Oval on Sunday.
The start of the match was delayed before referee Anthony Francis decided to call the game off after consulting with Parish coach Sergio Goater and his Wolves counterpart Vince Minors Jr.
It is understood one of the assistant referees designated for the match left the ground while officiating in the preceding First Division contest between X-Roads Warriors and Vasco da Gama following an alleged argument with referee Wendy Woodley.
Francis, who also serves as president of the Bermuda Referees Association, immediately left the ground after calling the game off. _The Royal Gazett_e reached out to the senior official for comment but are yet to receive a reply.
Opposing coaches Goater and Minors both expressed their disappointment that the relegation battle was called off as a result of the earlier incident.
“This impacts us big time because now it might be a night game and Lord knows where, so we could lose home-field advantage,” Goater said.
“There’s a lot more involved and then you have work status, so this is big disappointment for us.”
Minors believes action should be taken against the officials involved in the argument.
“From what I heard in the First Division game, the officials had issues with themselves and one of the referee assistants left during that game,” he said.
“They were supposed to assist Francis and I think the BFA need to reprimand who needs to reprimanded.”
Second-from-bottom Parish and bottom side Wolves are in the relegation zone with three matches to play.
Minors’s team must win all of their remaining matches, significantly improve their goal difference and hope other results go their way if they are to avoid relegation.
Time is also running out for Dudley Eve champions Parish, who will be keen to secure as many points as possible from their remaining matches and also rely on other results to go their way if they are to retain their top-flight status.