Royal Lakes wins second injunction against SCFA

MICHAEL PANCHAN, president, Royal Lakes Football Club, is relieved that his club’s cries in the wilderness have finally started turning the wheels of justice. However, he is utterly disappointed that it has taken a second court injunction against the St Catherine Football Association (SCFA) for justice to be served.

Panchan, whose Lakes Pen-based team was banned for two years from participating in the St Catherine Major League on the eve of its intended January 18 kick-off, last Friday secured an interim injunction against SCFA blocking the club, pending a court hearing set for Thursday.

Royal Lakes were banned by SCFA for breaching FIFA rules, which prohibit affiliates from pursuing court action outside of its internal structures and, ultimately, the Court of Arbitration for Sport based in Lausane, Switzerland.

The ban stemmed from Royal Lakes similarly securing a successful injunction against SCFA acting contrary to its constitution, which had forced a postponement of its elections last July.

Vindictive and arrogant

“It’s not that we want to go this route,” Panchan told The Gleaner. “In the interest of football, we really don’t want to but, Elaine Walker-Brown, the president of SCFA, has a vindictive and arrogant behaviour.

“She believes she can do things outside the constitution, probably because she is a vice-president of the Jamaica Football Federation, which claims it doesn’t get involved in quarrels between affiliates,” Panchan pointed out.

A Royal Lakes release stated that the club was able to secure an injunction against SCFA, preventing the ban against involvement in the Major League, which kicked off with a doubleheader at the Spanish Town Prison Oval last Saturday.

“Attorneys-at-law Sarah-Elizabeth Dixon, Sean-Christopher Castle, and Jessica Jackson argued that the ban rendered against Royal Lakes Football Club on January 13, 2025, was not only unconstitutional but in breach of the association’s own constitution, the constitution of the Jamaica Football Federation and a misrepresentation of the FIFA statutes,” the release read.

“The association, is, therefore, required, at law, to ensure the Royal Lakes Football Club is permitted to participate in this year’s Major League competition until further order of the court,” it concluded.

“They are banking on the FIFA statute that we cannot carry them to court. However, justice will never be served if we don’t. That’s why we have to take this route,” Panchan reminded, pointing out that Royal Lakes were successful in identifying breaches leading up to the elections after which the FIFA statutes were used against them for being right.

Chronicling the build-up to Royal Lakes woes with SCFA, Panchan cited the bitter presidency battle between incumbent Walker-Brown and him being on the slate of defeated aspirant, Jason McKay, as root causes.

“SCFA wanted to conduct the election with several breaches of its own constitution. The main breach was not providing the audited financial reports to the affiliates 21 days before the election, as set out by the constitution.

“The second breach was a stipulation that only presidents and general secretaries of each club were eligible to vote. However, the constitution says any two bona fide members are eligible to vote, meaning even my groundsman could vote.

“The third breach was that they disqualified some clubs because of disciplinary matters, saying they were ineligible to vote. The constitution says no such thing. They were also disqualifying candidates such as McKay and Audley Weir, the assistant secretary treasurer for McKay’s slate, saying he was not affiliated to any club.

“We wrote to the electoral committee of the JFF about the breaches and got no answer. We wrote to SCFA and got no answer. We went physically, McKay, myself and a former president of SCFA, and spoke to JFF general secretary, Dennis Chung, who told us JFF cannot interfere with parish matters.

“We were left with no choice but to lodge an injunction against the election, which was filed by Royal Lakes’ company secretary, Keno Douglas,” Panchan explained, adding that time did not allow for escalating the matter to CAS nor were they allowed a hearing by SCFA to follow such protocol.

“After the election, SCFA sent me a letter about the injunction, which I referred to my lawyer, who pointed out I wasn’t the person who had filed the injunction. However, SCFA said, no matter what, I am the president and ultimately responsible

“They asked for the club’s executive to attend a meeting. My response was that the injunction was a court matter, so I went to the meeting with two lawyers, who were shut out. They sent back another letter, saying they were rescheduling and, if we didn’t attend, we would be banned.

“We went to the meeting again with lawyers. They said they were not entertaining lawyers.

Under duress, we went into the meeting, without lawyers, at which we were assured it was not a hearing about being banned, even though they read the FIFA statutes.

“We left that meeting and heard nothing more from SCFA, amid doing all necessary players’ registration on FIFA Connect, paying affiliation fees, more than $100,000 in processing fees for transfers ahead of the January 18 kick-off, then they notified us by email, January 17, that we were banned.

“We were never afforded a disciplinary meeting. They stated categorically that the meeting we had without lawyers was a discussion, not a disciplinary meeting,” Panchan insisted.

Meanwhile, SCFA, which recently struggled to get the Major League under way amid a payment dispute with the St Catherine Referees’ Association, failed to attend last Friday’s hearing. Calls to Walker-Brown’s mobile went unanswered yesterday.