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Sabir: Ref was within his rights to call off game

There was mixed reaction over referee Lyndon Raynor's decision to call off Saturday night's top-of-the-table Premier Division clash involving league leaders Boulevard and second -placed Somerset Trojans at Somerset Cricket Club.

Raynor ultimately called the match off 20 minutes after the original kick off time (9 p.m.) after the attire of opposing teams clashed with each other.

Bermuda Football Association (BFA) general secretary David Sabir claims the senior referee was well "within his rights" to call the match off. However, Sabir's predecessor, Joe Brown, disagrees.

Brown insists the match should've been played and went as far as to accuse Raynor of "overreacting" to the situation.

"The idea of refereeing is to play matches, that's the most important thing for them. It's not the ref's job to become prima donnas and act as though they are the most important people in the sport," he argued.

"Their job is to see to it that the match is played; not go up there and say 'if you don't have uniforms in 10 minutes I'm going to call this game'. And I think under these circumstances the referee overreacted."

According to the former administrator, all local football clubs must clearly indicate their home and away colours when registering their various teams with the association annually.

"The referee should've known the BFA's ground rules concerning which team should have to change jerseys because as a result of his decision one of those teams would've have lost the game," Brown continued.

"But he didn't make any ruling other than to call the game off which in turn has thrown the matter back into the hands of the association."

BFA general secretary Sabir, however, stood by Raynor's decision.

Sabir said the association will now wait until they have reviewed the ref's official match report before deciding what course of action to take.

"The referee is completely within his jurisdiction regarding conflicts over uniforms," Sabir said. "It has appeared as though the referee (Raynor) has taken all of the necessary steps to inform both teams that someone had to alter their uniform in order to have the game proceed in a manner that would be appropriate for the referee in his judgement.

"Therefore, we will have to look at the situation and decide the appropriate course of action going forward."

Sabir then apologised to all the fans who were impacted by the ref's decision to call the match off, adding: "I hope their disappointment was lessened due to some administrative steps that Somerset may have taken once the game was cancelled."