CATHERINE HALL, St James – The surface of the football field at the Montego Bay Sports Complex has come in for severe criticism after Sunday’s Jamaica Premier League (JPL) double-header, the first football game to be played there in three years.

Montego Bay United came from behind twice to earn a 2-2 draw against Arnett Gardens in the feature game of the double-header after Vere United and Cavalier FC had played out a 0-0 draw.

Rudolph Speid, the coach of Cavalier FC, branded the field as “a disgrace”, while Paul “Tegat” Davis, the head coach at Arnett Gardens said he was “disappointed that the field had deteriorated to this level”.

At the same time, Donovan Duckie, the coach of Vere United, stated that the quality of the field was “not up to par”.

Competitive football was being played at the venue for the first time on Sunday since the 2019 Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association Ben Francis KO and daCosta Cup finals.

During the novel coronavirus lockdown, the complex was used to house a medical clinic.

Meanwhile, Aubrey Duncan, the head groundsman at the complex, sought to defend the condition of the field, arguing “it is as good as or better than any other” the teams had played on so far this season.

The Montego Bay Sports Complex has hosted a variety of football competitions including Concacaf competitions, Caribbean Football Union Championship, local club and schoolboys’ football competitions.

While admitting that his team only got the go-ahead to prepare the field last week Wednesday, five days before the games, Duncan told the Jamaica Observer West they were able to cut the grass and filled out some of the depressions with sand and marked the field.

Duncan noted that the field has “always been sand-based and that is why it might have felt different from the other fields they had been playing on”.

He also pointed out that, while there would be ongoing work on the field as the football season continues, they had to wait on the proposed work by the Government, including the relaying of the all-weather running track that surrounds the football field.

“We can’t just start doing all that we want to do. We need to wait for the Government’s schedule as they will be bringing in equipment and work will be done, so we have to wait on them so we can be synchronised,” he explained.

The coaches who spoke to the Observer West on Sunday were not impressed, however, and the outspoken Speid, who is also chairman of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Technical Committee, said, “The field is a disgrace, they should not play matches on this, it is too soft underneath.

“I thought the field would have been in better condition based on how long we were not playing [football on it], I am disappointed in the condition of the field,” he stressed.

Speid said he could not understand how the field got passed to host the games, “The option should have been not to play here, it is not like we don’t have other venues, I don’t know who passed this field, but it is awful.”

Duckie shared similar sentiments.

“The conditions were poor, lots of holes and bad grass,” he said, adding, “Kudos to the organisers to get it to this point, but the level was not up to par, the surface must be conducive to good play and we need to fix that going forward.”

For his part, Davis said, “The field is poor, poor, poor, poor, not up to standard. I am disappointed knowing that this is the good field that we were accustomed to and to see it in this condition is unacceptable.”