Rolfe Commissiong has weighed into the debate surrounding Boulevard Blazers’ withdrawal from the Friendship Trophy, saying he believes sports governing bodies have to be more socially responsible.Commissiong threw his support behind Dr Lou Matthews, the Boulevard president, who told The Royal Gazette on Thursday that he thought part of the Bermuda Football Association’s strategic agenda should be ‘about enhancing the lives of young men outside of football’.However, Commissiong, who chaired an inquiry into the Island’s clubs in 2005 and is a former Government consultant to the Premier, said the BFA and Bermuda Cricket Board couldn’t be expected to act in isolation.“I must commed Dr Matthews for his comments because I too agree that these governing bodies, whether it is cricket or football, have a respononsibility besides organising and governing the sports,” said Commissiong.“They do have a social responsibility but we cannot do that in isolation because on the other hand one has to give some credence to the view coming from the organising bodies that these challenges are far bigger than football or cricket.”Boulevard ultimately withdrew from the Friendship Trophy because they did not believe it was safe for their players to travel to Somerset for a Wednesday night game that was due to kick off at 9pm.The scheduling has been a bone of contention for the Central Pembroke club, who feel that some of the demands made of them in terms of fulfilling fixtures are unrealistic. Commissiong agreed and believed the BFA had taken a blinkered view to the issue.“The governing bodies can’t just take a blinkered view, and they have conveyed a feeling in the past that they didn’t create the issue so it’s not their responsibility,” he said.“I understand that the BFA have rationalised it that there are more security resources available at night, or something along those lines. I just think that may be a somewhat short-sighted view and an expedient view. I’m of the view suggested in The Royal Gazette (yesterday’s Friday Forum), that all games be held in the daytime.“I wouldn’t rule that out, and I wouldn’t rule out going the extra mile for teams like Boulevard, who, quite frankly, represent a very special case in this regard. That community is beleaguered on many fronts, not least of which is in respect to the rise of gang violence in the country.“For us not to be really sensitive to that, I think is unreasonable.”While Commissiong believes that the BFA and BCB could do more, he also thinks the clubs and Government have to do their part, and says they could do worse than look at his Clubs Report from 2005, and Professor Ronald Mincy’s report into young black men as a basis for a co-ordinated approach.“We need to recognise that at the heart of this are beleaguered communities from which most of these athletes are coming from,” he said. “These communities are characterised as being overwhelmingly black communities of low to middle income, high population of residential density.“It’s no secret that these are communities that in some respects Bermuda has left behind over the last 10 to 15 years. The issue is far larger than cricket and football, but certainly cricket and football are terribly affected by the growing disfunction that is eminating from many of these communities.“The whole country needs to come to grips with this and I would challenge the Government to reach out to these stakeholders, whereby they can craft more sustainable and long term solutions.”Commissiong doesn’t believe much has changed since his report in 2005 and still thinks it would have a revelance today and encourages all involved to study its findings.“I think it (the report) gave a pretty good analysis of where our community and Working Men’s Clubs were at that time,” he said. “I don’t think much of that has changed“The clubs, which is really the fulcrum around which most of this stuff is emanating from, did not resposition themselves or transform themselves in a way that I think would have been helpful in terms of playing a vital role in the 21st Century environment.“We’re still stuck here, without seeing much forward movement. I don’t want to pick on the clubs too much because underlying that are the communities in which they operate, and these communities are experiencing significant stresses and strains, of a socio-economic nature that we need to come to grips with.”