Gordon Williams, Contributor

blaine

Harbour View Football Club will appeal a five-year ban slapped on one of its female players by the Jamaica Football Federation's (JFF) Disci-plinary Committee.

Club representatives are disputing the evidence in the case, which claimed the player cut an opponent with a weapon during a post-match fight, and charge that the resulting punishment was "too harsh".

They also claim the allegations of weapon use and the resulting ban endangers the reputation of the club and its players.

According to Vin Blaine, coach of the club's Sherwin Williams Women's National Premier League football team, the club will file an appeal with the JFF either today or tomorrow, a move he hopes will lead to a drastic reduction in the player's suspension.

"I'm appealing the length of the sentence," he said yesterday. "I want to get the sentence reduced ... I am appealing it on the lack of evidence."

Blaine explained tha Claudette 'Mumma' Walker should be punished for her involvement in the fracas, she did not deserve the lengthy ban from the sport because there is no evidence to support a case witness' story that she attacked and cut Olympic Gardens opponent Latoya 'Hagler' Reid with a weapon during a confrontation after a match between the teams on August 15 at Cling Cling Oval.

"That is a complete lie," Blaine said. "They have no evidence that she had a weapon. Nobody can come up with a weapon."

Televised version

According to Blaine, a man who attended the game claimed Walker pulled a weapon from her socks and stabbed Reid in her face. But the coach also explained that a televised version of the incident, which resulted in a brawl involving players from both teams, did not show Walker with a weapon.

Testimony from players from both teams, who were on the field at the time of the incident, did not indicate the presence of a weapon in Walker's possession either, he added.

Efforts to get an explanation on how the disciplinary committee arrived at the specific length of the ban for Walker were unsuccessful.

Neville Oxford, who chairs the committee, declined to discuss the matter in detail.

"I can't make a statement on the case," he said yesterday. "Every statement has to be made through the JFF. I am a part of a committee ... It's protocol.

"We go by facts," he added. "We evaluate the facts and make our decision."

However, the length of the disciplinary committee's ban appears to be directly pinned to the charge that Walker used a weapon during the fracas.

Blaine said the reputation of Walker, the club and himself is at stake, so he is demanding that the disciplinary committee show concrete evidence that Walker used a weapon.

"I am defending that no one saw her (Walker) with anything," said Blaine, who questioned the credibility of the man who claimed to have seen Walker use a weapon. "I am defending the character of my player and team. The implication is wrong. I want them (the committee) to prove it."

Walker, meanwhile, has strongly denied using a weapon to attack Reid.

"I did not have any weapon at all on me," the 29-year-old said yesterday.

Walker, who was once a member of Olympic Gardens, confirmed the confrontation with Reid. She also admitted she punched the Olympic Gardens goalkeeper. But Walker said there was no previous conflict between herself and Reid, which would have prompted her to carry a weapon as she entered the field as a substitute.

Distraught

She explained that she has played friendly 'country' matches for Olympic Gardens while a member of Harbour View and still considers Reid and other members of that club her friends.

"Dem is my team too," she said. "(Reid) is a good friend of mine. I still have her as my friend. I don't know if she has me as her friend."

The incident has left her distraught and she is anxious to shed the image as a weapon-wielding attacker and reduce her suspension.

"It (the incident) tear me up bad," said Walker. "Football is my life. If they take away that, they take away everything. It's a thing I love.

"Five years!" she added, sounding astonished days after the ban was issued on August 24. "Part of my life that. God Almighty know I did not use a weapon."

Meanwhile, Walker was not the only player punished for involvement in the incident. Reid received an eight-match ban and was fined $1,000. Her teammate, Tuwana Thompson, was suspended for six games and fined $1,000.

Gordon Williams is a Jamaican journalist based in the United States.