Football and democracy were the big losers in Monday’s Ordinary/Special General Meeting of the St James Football Association, which at times threatened to spin out of control and into chaos.

What should have been a demonstration of the democratic process at its best, ended up resembling a fish market.

To mix sports metaphors, football got hit for six right out of the park.

Both sides which competed for the running of the FA in what was a disgraceful display of egos and testosterone will point the finger at the other side, but instead, they should be looking at their contribution to the debacle.

Football in St James lost, as in the fight to ensure that power was retained, former national goalkeeper and captain Donovan Ricketts, who returned home with the intention of helping the game in his home town, left the venue before he was able to even offer himself to the voters.

Football lost, as way too many important questions as to how the game is being administered here were not answered, or were simply brushed aside. For the second time in four years, the accounting procedures of the FA were not properly and clearly explained to the roughly 100 delegates who were in attendance.

Questions about a valid constitution and proper financial reports were ignored in the mob-like atmosphere where the vast majority of the delegates sought to hasten the proceedings so they could “vote and go home”.

And that’s exactly what they did – they voted in the race for president, then hurried off. Ninety-nine ballots were cast in the vote for the president, 82 going to Gregory Daley who was returned, and 16 to his challenger Orville Powell, with one being rejected.

Roughly half of the attendees left after that, as only 53 votes were cast in the next contest, for assistant general secretary, and then in the vote for council members where each delegate is allowed five votes, the top scorer got 45 votes, meaning only about 10 people were still participating in the exercise.

It was scary that so few people cared how the game was being administered, but even more startling was the demonstration of how badly the relationship between the two most powerful men in football in western Jamaica had deteriorated.

At one point the meeting degenerated into a shouting match involving outgoing General Secretary Bruce Gaynor; David Watt, the first vice-president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF); and Orville Powell, president of Montego Bay United, one whom Gaynor once guided to the presidency in the parish.

Both Powell and Gaynor had been close for decades since they were students at Herbert Morrison Technical and were the architects of Montego Bay United’s rise to be a power in local club football, boasting one of the best football facilities.

It might be delving into the realms of speculation, but one can’t help wondering how much of this bad blood we saw on Monday night was a carry-over from Powell’s decision last year to challenge JFF boss, Horace Burrell.

Despite the perceived closeness between Powell and Gaynor, who is also close to Burrell, Powell never got St James’ endorsement in the form of a nomination, and he never even made it into the race.

Fuel was further thrown on the simmering fire when a lawful request from Powell to get the list of delegates from the St James FA for this election was not honoured.

The last straw could have been the presence of armed policemen manning the doors to the Cricket Club on Monday night, as delegates, media and interested parties showed up for the AGM, and had to have names ticked off on a list.

The result was a raucous finger-pointing, name-calling, chest-thumping display where football was the big loser.