Following his suspension by the GFF for his conduct in the abandoned fixture between Pele and Alpha United, veteran forward Gregory Richardson declared yesterday he will be taking the matter to court and that his international career is over.
In an exclusive interview with Stabroek News, the Pele talisman said “I plan to take them [Guyana Football Federation (GFF)] to court and I will win my case. They don’t have any evidence, I ask the linesman on the field if I curse and he said he don’t know and I get a red card for cursing. I just ask the man [referee] for 10 yards.”
According to Richardson “Konata [Manning] asked he the same thing, I have Konata as a witness and other players. I will take the matter further and prove myself. I find it disrespectful to my football career because I didn’t do anything to deserve that. I don’t know what the club is going to do, I know I’m taking the matter further”.
He further declared “I feel this is the end of my international career. I will never play back for Guyana. When I try to help my country, they disrespect me, they always want me to stop due to the last World Cup issues but my fans asked me to go back and I went back and do a lot”.
“But I came back to the same thing and should not have gone back on my word. I will not be playing again for Guyana” he added. Efforts to contact the GFF for a comment were unsuccessful.
Asked if any official documentation was sent to him from the GFF stating he has been suspended, Richardson said “I was never given notice but not sure if they sent it to the club. When I went training with the national team, the manager told me that I was banned until further notice”.
He further said that Travis Grant and Omallo Williams have also not received any official documentation stating they have been banned.
Pele stalwarts Richardson, Grant and Williams were issued with provisional bans by the GFF for their actions in the abandoned fixture featuring Alpha United in the Stag Beer Elite League.
This action follows the sanctioning of club by the GFF. The Georgetown-based entity was officially fined $200,000 penalty and a deduction of points from their tally for walking off the field and refusing to finish the match against Alpha United.
The incident occurred on Wednesday May 18th with the score locked 2-0 in favour of Alpha United. Following a foul outside the centre of the semicircle, Richardson was shown a red card for supposedly using abusive language towards the official in a complaint about the distance of the wall marked from the infraction.
Chaos then ensued as Daniel Wilson scored from the spot-kick to make it 2-0, with protests coming in every direction from the Pele players who surrounded the official. Williams was then issued a red card moments later before the restart of the contest for allegedly using threatening language to the referee. Similarly, Grant was also reported by the officials for supposedly making threatening remarks.
It was at this moment Pele left the playing area in protest. Despite the attempts of the match commissioner to appease the situation, Pele refused to take the playing area and the match was subsequently abandoned following discussions with the match commissioner and the Director of Competitions Ian Alves.
