'Golding is not Arnett's chairman'

Arnett Gardens Football Club's president, Patrick Roberts, says Mark Golding is not the club's chairman and has no authority at this time to make changes to its administrative structure.

In a report in The Gleaner yesterday Golding, the chairman of the constituency in which Arnett Gardens FC has its offices and playfield, said he wanted to make major changes to the club's administrative structure.

Roberts, however, said football constitutions of clubs in the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association do not recognise a chairman and the chain of command of a club starts with the president, down to the senior team captain.

The individuals recognised in the constitution held a meeting on Monday to reinstate the original executive body, including general manager Richard Bennett. They also decided the constituency chairman (Golding) needs to go through due process before his appointment becomes official. Yesterday's report had said that Richard Bennett had offered his resignation as general manager of the club and was replaced by Peter Thelwell

"Mark Golding is not the chairman of Arnett Gardens football club and cannot make that decision (remove president). The position (chairman) is not transferable, it is a process. If you understand the constitution of football, a chairman is not recognised. The president, general secretary, team manager or team captain is recognised..

"The president (Roberts), George Phang (manager), Gregory Hall (administrator), Jerome Waite (head coach) and Oneil Thompson (team captain) had a meeting with the general manager and the first order was not to accept his resignation. Hence Mr Bennett has been reinstated as the general manager," he declared, adding that a letter of the meeting's outcome was sent to Golding and copied to former chairman, Dr Omar Davies, who named Golding as his successor.

Roberts insisted they were willing to give Golding the chance but that his decision to break a 'winning formula' and make massive changes overnight caused some dissent.

CONTRARY TO PHILOSOPHY

"We were willing to go with the outgoing chairman's suggestion, but what Mark Golding did was contrary to the philosophy of football. He wants to structure things his way, he removed the office of president without the input of the club, players and executives. That cannot work, as he was not sanctioned," he said.

However, he is willing to sit with Golding, with Davies as mediator, to iron the way forward.

"We are open for discussion, but we have to be guided by the constitution of football, and we welcome the former chairman as the mediator. But the disrespectful situation from the constituency chairman, we are not going to tolerate," he added.

Meanwhile, Golding was puzzled by Roberts' action after a fruitful discussion to outline plans recently.

I am not sure why Mr Roberts said those things. I met him last Friday and had a cordial meeting and explained my position. I advised him to come on the board and that offer still stands, but if he has some issues, I hope he can discuss them with me and we can resolve them," he stated.