The Georgetown Football Association (GFA) yesterday suspended the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) football team indefinitely following an off the field incident that brought a premature end to Wednesday evening’s quarter-final matches in the Banks Premium Beer Cup at Tucville Playfield.
General Secretary of the GFA, Marlan Cole, told Stabroek Sport yesterday that the Executive Committee agreed unanimously to suspend the GDF team because of a history of bringing the game of football into disrepute.
The decision was made at a specially convened meeting yesterday to deal with Wednesday’s incident in which a rank of the GDF, Roland D’Aguiar, who is currently on a ban by the GFA following an incident with a referee last year, was spotted at the venue on Wednesday by one of the officials who requested that he leave but he allegedly refused to comply and the referees walked off the field and out of the venue.
Cole said that the matter would be taken up with the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and the Guyana Football Referees Association to seek a way forward.
GT&T Cellink League champions, Alpha United, were leading Uprising 2-0 after 28 minutes of play through goals by Peter Parks and Elton Brown.
Many fans expressed disappointment over the incident but Cole promised that the there would be free admission for the next match.
“We want the public to know that Mr. D’Aguiar has been banned from all football activities organized by the GFA,” Cole said.
According to the official the ban is indefinite.
The GDF were scheduled to meet Sunburst Camptown in the final quarter-final match of the 16-team knockout tournament sponsored by local beverage giants Banks DIH Ltd.
With the suspension of the GDF, Camptown will now advance to the semi-finals to meet the winner of the Alpha/Uprising game which is scheduled to be replayed this evening at the Tucville Playfield at 20:00 h.
There will be a supporting match between Fruta Conquerors and Beacons billed to start at 18:00 h.
The semi-finals will be played off on Saturday evening and already Pele and Santos have booked places in the last four.
A date for the final will be announced shortly.
At stake in the competition is a first prize of $250,000 with the runners-up securing $125,000, the third-placed side will take home $75,000 while fourth place will receive $50,000.
