SSFL shuffle fixtures to postpone title decider; Shiva Boys protest Naps midfielder Murphy

The Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) executive has decided to shuffle its fixture list to ensure that the Premier Division’s potential title deciding games—involving St Anthony’s College, Naparima College and Presentation College (San Fernando)—are played on the final match day.

St Anthony’s and Naparima are locked on 30 points each, although the former team has a superior goal difference. Presentation are on 23 points at present but also have two games in hand, which could take them to 29.

Photo: A St Anthony’s College defender (centre) tries in vain to clear an effort by Presentation College attacker Jaiye Sheppard (left) which has already crossed the goal line during SSFL action at Westmoorings on 25 October 2017.
Looking on (right) is St Anthony’s goalkeeper Oba Augustin.
(Courtesy Allan V Crane/CA-Images/Wired868)

The “Westmoorings Tigers” were due to travel to St Mary’s College on Saturday for their final league match of 2017 while “Naps” were hosting second from bottom, Trinity College Moka.

However, a flood of postponements due to inclement weather meant that the Premier Division would have continued next week with rescheduled matches on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.


It is unclear whether the SSFL’s final decision was made on its own volition or after needling from television network, SportsMax, which broadcasts the league live across the Caribbean and North America. Either way, the fixture reshuffle will ensure a dramatic final match day thanks to key adjustments of the fixture list. (See below)

The drama off the field shows no sign of slowing down, though, as a new protest was lodged this morning. This time, Shiva Boys Hindu College are the complainers and not the complainees.

Naparima College are in the hot seat now, as they will be asked to prove that midfielder Rushawn Murphy—a former Malick Secondary student and Trinidad and Tobago National Under-20 Team player—is eligible to play school’s football.

Photo: Naparima College utility player Rushawn Murphy (centre) and St Anthony’s College defender Nkosi Salandy (left) contest the ball during SSFL action at Westmoorings on 20 September 2017.
(Courtesy Chevaughn Christopher/Wired868)

The 19-year-old Murphy, a former Pro League player with St Ann’s Rangers and Club Sando, is a form five student at Naparima. It is unclear what rule Shiva Boys think might have been infringed upon by Naps in using the promising utility player.

Murphy sat the SEA examinations in 2012 and passed for East Mucurapo Secondary before eventually transferring to Malick and then Naparima. Already on his third secondary school, Murphy is yet to sit the CXC exam and is not a form five repeater.

Naparima, who won the season’s first protest by querying Shiva Boys’ registration of Kierron Mason for the opening game of the 2017 term, are confident that they followed proper procedure in recruiting Murphy.

“He is a form five transfer student,” Naparima team manager Percy Samlalsingh told Wired868. “He never wrote CXC.”

If Shiva Boys’ protest is successful, though, Naparima could lose most of their points this season and are likely to be relegated, alongside the suspended Fyzabad Secondary. Ironically, Shiva Boys cannot gain any points themselves since they used an improperly registered player, Mason, in their own clash with Naparima.


At present, the SSFL still has to rule on St Benedict’s College’s protest against Speyside High for alleged insufficient security. Speyside defeated St Benedict’s 1-0 on Wednesday 11 October.

Photo: Speyside High goalkeeper Jonathan Thomas looks on in despair as St Mary’s College captain Gabrial Nanton collects the ball in a dangerous position during SSFL action at Serpentine Road, St Clair on 7 October 2017.
(Courtesy Allan V Crane/CA-Images/Wired868)

Fatima College also filed an appeal today against a SSFL Disciplinary Committee decision not to deduct points from Shiva Boys, despite finding them guilty of using Mason in six games when he was improperly registered.

St Anthony’s won their own case against Shiva Boys on Wednesday morning and the two points gained took the Tigers a whisker ahead of Naps on the standings.

Shiva Boys manager Sheldon Maharaj indicated that the school will appeal the Disciplinary Committee’s decision.

In all, four schools—inclusive of Fyzabad—will be relegated from the Premier Division while three teams will be promoted to replace them, which means the competition will have 15 schools next season.

Valencia Secondary, Bishop’s High School (Tobago), East Mucurapo Secondary, Moruga Secondary and Chaguanas North Secondary are battling for the available positions in the ongoing Championship Division Big 5 competition.

Photo: St Anthony’s College midfielder Jodel Brown (centre) pivots away from Naparima College midfielder Rushawn Murphy (second from left) during SSFL Premier Division action at Westmoorings on 20 September 2017.
(Courtesy Chevaughn Christopher/Wired868)

SSFL Remaining Fixtures

(Saturday 28 October)

Presentation College v St Augustine Secondary, 3.40pm, Guaracara Park;

St Benedict’s College v Trinity College East, 3.40pm, Lewis Street, San Fernando;

Carapichaima East v Shiva Boys HC, 3.40pm, Carapichaima;

Signal Hill v Fatima College, 3.40pm, Signal Hill;

San Juan North v Speyside High, 3.40pm, San Juan.

Photo: Shiva Boys Hindu College playmaker Judah Garcia (right) attempts a pass while Fatima College midfielder Zach Welch (centre) stays close during SSFL action at Mucurapo Road on 30 September 2017.
(Courtesy Annalisa Caruth/Wired868)

(Monday 30 October)

Trinity College East v Fatima College, 3.40pm, Trincity;

St Augustine v Trinity College Moka, 3.40pm, St Augustine;

Shiva Boys HC v St Mary’s College, 3.40pm, Morne Diablo.

Photo: St Mary’s College attacker Trey La Motte (right) tries to get past St Augustine Secondary defender Jamal Meloney during SSFL action at Serpentine Road, St Clair on 2 October 2017.
(Courtesy Allan V Crane/CA-Images/Wired868)

(Thursday 2 November)

Signal Hill v Trinity College Moka, 3.40pm, Signal Hill;

Presentation College v Trinity College East, 3.40pm, Mannie Ramjohn Stadium.

Photo: St Anthony’s College playmaker Che Benny (left) sidesteps Presentation College star Jordan Riley during SSFL action at Westmoorings on 25 October 2017.
(Courtesy Sean Morrison/Wired868)

(Saturday 4 November)

Fatima College v Presentation College, 3.40pm, Fatima;

St Benedict’s College v Shiva Boys HC, 3.40pm, Barrackpore;

St Mary’s College v St Anthony’s College, 3.40pm, St Mary’s;

Naparima College v Trinity College Moka, 3.40pm, Lewis Street.

SSFL Standings

(Played-Won-Drew-Lost-Goals For-Goals Against-Points)

  1. St Anthony’s       13-9-3-1-42-20-30
  2. Naparima            13-9-3-1-30-13-30
  3. Presentation       11-7-2-2-25-14-23
  4. Shiva Boys HC    11-7-1-3-28-14-22
  5. San Juan N         13-5-6-2-29-1521
  6. Trinity East         11-5-2-4-20-12-17
  7. St Mary’s            12-4-4-4-27-26-16
  8. Fatima                 11-6-0-5-15-15-18
  9. Carapichaima E 13-4-3-5-19-20-15
  10. QRC                    14-4-3-7-23-30-15
  11. St Augustine       12-4-1-7-24-28-13
  12. St Benedict’s      12-3-3-6-18-26-12
  13. Signal Hill           12-2-2-8-11-25-8
  14. Trinity Moka        11-2-2-7-13-30-8
  15. Speyside High     13-2-1-10-7437
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About Lasana Liburd

Lasana Liburd is the managing director and chief editor at Wired868.com and a journalist with over 20 years experience at several Trinidad and Tobago and international publications including Play the Game, World Soccer, UK Guardian and the Trinidad Express.

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244 comments

  1. I would like Lasana Liburd to follow.up on this in Jan and then.in June and see if he’s still in Naps or if he writes CXC

  2. so he 19…and eh write CXC yet?…lol

  3. The most impòrtant games were won in court this year!!!!! Smh. This is the bacanal with secondary school football now? Hmmm

    • I don’t understand so why they don’t check out these players prior to the start of the games to make sure all players on each team is legal to be on the team, once their final decision on each player per school is given the stamp of approval, then start off the season with a clear path to proper success and may the best team win but oh gosh look at this mess ? Is there any proper procedure at all??? It seems they leave it to be a mess so once a complained is won by a team they get the points and that is what is really going on, win by complaining ????

    • No shiva is very real but SSFL give promission to play mason then give naps the point when was suppose to b a home game, u want to open it d friday ,instead of saturday where he would of been in d clear because is money being made when they charge u to to come in d stadium ,it was shiva game better shiva did not go alone with they sick twisted plans ,shame on them

  4. Sports max must be wondering what they have gotten themselves into.

  5. Shouldn’t there have been due diligence by the rule makers Trevor Bridglalsingh. Meaning that a proper staff should have been out in place to ensure things were done properly, especially in light of what transpired last year.

  6. With all these protests, suspensions, reductions of points and relegations etc…..QRC just might win the title!!!

  7. Enough blame to go around unfortunately. However, we are here and need to fix it.

  8. The rule makers did not make the fiasco ,the rule breakers did

    • Not taking away what the rule breakers did but the makers job is not only to set the rules but enforce them which they didnt do so both need to share equal blame. One side will be punished for their actions while the other side sits idly by…no way while they benefitted from it

  9. So to get real goal difference a sister school can field an U 16 team as has happened before

  10. I realize as a society we neither like “accountability” or “correction” when we are the ones in the wrong. All the schools who have administration problems have knowledge of the rules, and because they were negligent or deliberately tried to pervert the rules and was called to the carpet for it and punish or will be punished according to the “legislation” in place one cannot be upset with the authorities for correcting such actions even if you support said school.

    This is exactly why politicians can’t squander and thief because they are never held accountable, no one is locked up (pnm,unc etc) because we support “our” party blindly even when they are wrong. I don’t care who do wrong BIG or SMALL, if any school willfully or not did not adhere to the rules and there is legislation/rules in place to punish/correct said wrong doing then it must be administered.

  11. SSFL ual want to discriminize FYZO but looked wat going on now corruption in these prestige’s sch. wat a Shame ,Shame Shame

  12. Teams who have their games postponed and have available players getting injured should protest that they have been unfairly treated. Teams that have to play three games in seven days should protest that they are not fairly treated and so on and so on.
    Keep protests going until someone wins the league through protests, and then have protests about that etc.
    Close the league down and fix the NUMEROUS problems, ban for life ALL who contributed and start over from scratch with proper systems and processes and get rid of all those bringing our children into this unhealthy situation.
    Lord help. What a mess.

  13. Ok. I’m really not sure of the details of Shiva Boys’ protest yet. Has to be either that he repeated twice or he didn’t have his two passes.
    Couldn’t be that he played after the cut off date as his school coach Angus Eve is also his club coach at Club Sando.
    So I only know there is a protest for now and will update after that.
    I cannot say whether the protesting school is on strong ground.

  14. better dey postponed all dem sch. games let dey started ah fresh next year too much corruption

  15. Cancel the tournament, too much confusion

  16. wat is dis is really little children playing football for a bag of sweeti everyone protesting now Shame on the ssfl ual need to resigned ual give FYZO SCH a bad name even the GIRLS can’t play and the rest of the teams u know wat u public the girls through but dey will rise next year because dey can’t beat FYZO they will come stronger next year dey trying to bring down Shiva toobbut ual can’t make shame on ual SSFL

  17. I hope Murphy knows that this is not an attempt to “sower” his reputation or even introduce his name into this debacle of a season…Shiva have known about his situation from the very beginning of the season and were never going to file a protest….but!

  18. wait nah is one more school in blue for a mark to buss on or that is the school that holding mark to buss on one in blue that in trouble already ..

  19. I knew this was going to happen.. when schools put football before education .. teaching young men ‘anything for the win’ .. opens up the door to a lot more. Yet as an educator I’m all for student athletes maintaining a certain level of academic performance to stay on any team no matter the talent.. otherwise go play in the pro league and forget school ..

  20. Naps wanted to win of the field but now they can’t even win it there as well.. karma issa bitch unno lol…

  21. Naps is very well managed …shiva just salty they cant win lol

  22. Wow! Trinity Moka have to play three games in the space of six days with a trip to Tobago squeezed in the middle. It’s going to be hard avoiding that drop.

  23. throw them out …we may miss some good football but clean this it up …

  24. Is all this falling ultimately on the SSFL President

  25. SSFL GATE…..Football Gate. ..Protest Gate

  26. It can’t get better than that….sprangalang voice

  27. Dont worry there is more to come from a team in blue. .hahaha

  28. I just waiting fuh
    “Dave Smith…who was in remand yard for two years before being admitted to ________ college was referred to the protest committee”

  29. anyway Kyon Esdelle supports this

  30. Didn’t Mason take a year off from school as well? Shiva prepared to take Naps down with them then

  31. “The 19-year-old Murphy, a former Pro League player with St Ann’s Rangers and Club Sando, is repeating form five at Naparima. Like Shiva Boys Hindu College midfielder Kierron Mason, Murphy is believed to have taken a year off school.”
    lol… this thing is a joke..man stopped school was playing pro league fuh ah year then come back to rpt form five?.. hahahahahaha
    Fatima win a protest but DON’T want the points?..hahaha…

    and Shiva may win a protest but can’t benefit because they themselves erred….lol…

  32. Can’t help but laugh in naps them really good yes

  33. Lasana Liburd what’s really going on with the SSFL brother? Lots of controversy.

  34. Hopefully the schools that are not under scrutiny Travis.

    Then again that may be most schools

  35. Maybe the league should go with an upper age limit as opposed to this number of years schooling thing.

  36. Travis the only games that not playing are St Marys vs St Anthonys…Naps vs Trinity Moka

  37. So which games playing tomorrow Dexter Cyrus?

  38. 3 tinted vehicles reported just entered Fyzabad School could this be the beginning of action taken

  39. Sportsmax laughing at we….
    If u running a telivised league….
    The penultimate game and the ultimate game…must be played on the same day at the same time across the board….
    This has nothing to do with schools and their managers or administrators….this is not a minor league…
    Teams playing at the top for the title…teams playing at the bottom not to be demoted….
    U cannot leave teams with games in hand on both ends of the table….its like asking fuh corruption…
    SSFL got this one right

  40. I like it. If this is what is needed to clean up the mess then so be it. But it would be ironic if Naps are found guilty, these kinds off oversights arent associated with Naps.

  41. Naps has to swallow their own medicine lol…Karma is a bitch … talk nahh

  42. So the protest backlash begins! Looks like this year the SSFL boardroom is where titles will be decided and not on the field of play!

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