Well, footballers need money too.
At least one man doesn’t think it’s fair to suspend footballers from the Barbados team for appearing in out-of-season tournaments, considering those same competitions put money in the players’ pockets while the national programme doesn’t.
Former Barbados Football Association (BFA) general secretary Chris Graham expressed the view after national captain Mario Harte, Mario Williams and Renaldo Trim received suspension letters for playing in the then unsanctioned Henderson Williams City Soccer Classic.
“At the end of the day football is amateur in Barbados and the national team doesn’t pay our players so it is hard to deprive persons of money because everyone needs to make a living and survive in Barbados,” Graham told WEEKENDSPORT.
“I am not about out of season tournaments eh, but I am about these players benefiting and we are not at a stage where we can stop these out of season tournaments because football here is amateur and the national team has achieved nothing significant for as long as Barbados has been playing nor does it contribute financially to a player’s welfare,” he said. (JM)
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