Disciplinary hearing for suspended Pele trio June 10th

— GFF president Wayne Forde

Guyana Football Federation (GFF) president Wayne Forde, said the disciplinary hearing for Pele’s suspended trio of Gregory Richardson, Travis Grant and Omallo Williams will be held June 10th.

In an invited comment with Stabroek Sports, Forde said: “The information I have received indicate they will meet with the committee on June 10th. “They have been written to prepare their own statements in their defence and ready to sit with the disciplinary committee.”

According to Forde, the executive committee of the GFF will exercise no discretion on the actions taken by the committee. “We have no involvement. This is entirely up the members [Committee],” he said adding that the body will review the evidence and then make a decision.

Wayne Forde
Wayne Forde

“However, it does not stop the clubs form imposing their own sanctions if they deem necessary on the players,” he added.

The trio were slapped with provisional bans resulting from the abandoned fixture featuring Alpha United in the Stag Beer Elite League.

Gregory Richardson
Gregory Richardson

The three-member committee to review the case are Chairman Sanjeev Datadin, Dr. Clement McEwan, Whittington Braithwaite and Natasha Vieira.

The suspension of the three players resulted from their actions in the abandoned fixture between Alpha United and Pele in the Stag Beer Elite League.

Pele was slapped with a $200,000 penalty and a deduction of points from their tally for walking off the field and refusing to finish the match.

The incident occurred May 18th with the score 2-0 in favour of Alpha United.

Following a foul outside the centre of the semicircle, Richardson was shown a red card for allegedly using abusive language towards the official in a complaint over the distance of the wall marked from the infraction.

Chaos then ensued as Daniel Wilson scored from the spot-kick to make it 2-0, with protests coming in every direction from the Pele players who surrounded the official.

Williams was then issued a red card moments later before the restart of the contest for allegedly using threatening language to the referee while Grant was also reported by the officials for allegedly making threatening remarks.

It was at this moment where Pele left the playing area in protest. Despite the attempts of the match commissioner to appease the situation, Pele refused to take the playing area and the match was abandoned after deliberations with the match commissioner and the Director of Competitions Ian Alves.

Richardson has since said that he will be taking the matter to court and that his international career is over.