The St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation (SVGFF) has condemned an act of physical assault on one its match officials.
Reports are that referee- Rohan Primus suffered facial lacerations after being struck by a player of the Greiggs FC, last Sunday, 6th November, at the Chili Playing Field.
At the time of the incident, SV United was leading Greiggs 3-2, in a First Division match of the National Club Championships.
The attack on Primus resulted in the match ending prematurely. A release from the SVGFF indicated that the three goals up for grabs were awarded to SV United.
A statement from the SVGFF’s Secretariat dated Monday 7th November, 2022, read: ” The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation has launched an investigation after one of its referees sustained injuries during an assault in a match over the weekend… We do not condone any form of violence towards anyone in the football community and will consider tougher sanctions against those behaving unacceptably at matches”.
Reaffirming its stance on abuse, the release added, “The SVGFF is very clear that all forms of abuse, whether on or off the pitch, are unacceptable and we will continue to do everything to stamp out this behavior”.
And as for preventing the reoccurrence of such incidents, incidents to reoccur, the SVGFF release stated: “Measures will be taken to totally avoid this from happening again, and the matter was also placed in the hands of the Disciplinary Committee”.
The 2022/2023 National Club Championships staged by the SVGFF began on 1st October, with the kick off of the Second Division.
The First Division got started 23rd October and the Premier Division commenced last Sunday 6th November