CUMBERLAND High school’s bid to celebrate their 15th anniversary with a place in the second round of the ISSA/Flow Manning Cup received a huge setback when they were deducted the point they earned in a 1-1 draw with Papine High on Monday.

The school’s field and Head Coach Wayne Fraser were placed on probation following a disciplinary meeting in which Papine High were awarded the Group B match with a 3-0 winning margin.

The referee, who reported stone-throwing incidents, field invasion by the spectators, and indecent behaviour, called off the game prematurely. It was played in Portmore.

Coach Fraser, though upset, said he has accepted ISSA’s decision despite refuting the referee’s claims.

“I didn’t agree with the report. The thing is that they say the referee’s decision is always final, and there is no arbitration panel to challenge the referee’s report,” argued Fraser.

“Until Jamaica has something that can discipline referees, Jamaica will always be this way,” he added.

“If you come into the community, the people will tell you that what the referee wrote about stone-throwing, nobody saw that, and the only persons who saw that was the referee and Papine people,” said Fraser.

Fraser, who has been coaching at Cumberland High since 2003, and became head coach in 2009, said the only blame he would accept was “that we left early, and there was no other police personnel on campus at the time”.

“Poor officiating caused spectators to do a lot of things. The referee said stones and bottles were thrown at him from the first half, and I am saying, why he didn’t stop the game or something. He continued the game,” Fraser pointed out.

“They say I told the referee expletives. I don’t know about that. I simply asked him ‘why you giving a player a second warning for an incident that you just gave a player a straight red card’, and he said ‘mi chat too much. I must leave the technical area,” Fraser explained.

“The only thing I want the referee to do is ‘ref’ the game properly. When referees do a good game, I will tell them, and when they do bad games, I will tell them also, because I know the laws,” he added.

Cumberland are now at the bottom of Group B without a point following their 0-4 loss to Haile Selassie on Thursday, but Fraser remains upbeat.

“The zone is very open and we still can go through.

“Our aim is we need to make the second round, because it’s our 15th anniversary, and we need to make that bold step,” he pointed out.

“The Under-14 team made it several times. The Under-16 made the second round twice, so it’s full time the Manning Cup team reach that [standard],” he added.

“We have a very young team, the average age of the team is 16, and our youngest players are 13 going to 14,” he noted.

“We just have to give thanks, keep focused and follow our school motto: Never Say Never, Always Endeavour,” ended Fraser.

— H Walker