Embattled former general secretary of the Barbados Football Association (BFA), Chris Graham, will not be reinstated.
Graham lost his plea to be restored to the post when the BFA’s Executive Council voted to accept his resignation at a special meeting Tuesday night.
A council member, who attended the meeting at the BFA’s headquarters in Fontabelle, told NATIONSPORT eight members voted against Graham’s return, while there were seven abstentions.
Graham wasn’t at the meeting, which was chaired by vice-president Al Walcott (who did not vote), even though president Randy Harris was in attendance.
A former footballer with Youth Milan and the Barbados Defence Force Sports Programme, Graham, who was only appointed to the post last October on the recommendation of Harris, handed in his resignation letter on September 6 following an incident at the BFA office between Harris, Walcott and junior assistant secretary Ashton Chapman.
That incident resulted in Harris, Walcott and Chapman being interrogated at the Central Police Station Tuesday night and warned of “intended prosecution by the police” after Graham reported the matter.
However, he subsequently wrote council members asking that they “carry out a full investigation of the matter and accept my withdrawal of my resignation letter”.
As a result, the meeting, which was attended by 16 of the 19 council members, was hastily called to hear the matter, the only item on the agenda.
After Graham resigned, he was given a cheque for a month’s salary in lieu of notice and vacation pay, which he accepted.
According to another council member, who asked not to be identified, this may have swayed some members in their vote against Graham’s return, while others abstained because there weren’t fully briefed on the reasons for his resignation.
He, however, felt that Graham should have been invited to the meeting to give his side of the incident, saying he didn’t believe that Harris and Chapman should have voted in a matter which stemmed from a complaint being made against them by Graham.