GASA is the legitimate organization – Huggins

Trevor Huggins, president of the recently revived Georgetown Area Sports Association (GASA), has restated that the umbrella organization is the legitimate one to administer sports in that north eastern town.

His reiteration comes in light of the claim by another organization, headed by Otashie {{more}} Spring, the current first vice-president of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation (SVGFF),that they have the right to carry out the affairs of the North East Football League.

Claiming that the Spring led committee is “illegal”, Huggins recounted some events leading up to the recent administrative battle.

“I received a letter from the SV United football team seeking a meeting to spell out certain things,” Huggins told SEARCHLIGHT.

He countered that the grievances of lack of financial statements and the hand-picking of executive members to run the league, as listed in the letter, were all unfounded.

“Every year we have a financial report; when we called meetings, only few persons turned up … We have called meetings twice and after a second time, we used those persons as the executive,” Huggins recalled.

Huggins said he believes that the recent turn of events are orchestrated efforts by others to get at him politically, as well as to engage in acts of vendetta.

A former general secretary of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation (SVGFF), Huggins revealed that during hosting of the 2015 North East Football League, pertinent correspondence from the national football body were not sent to him.

He said he knew of efforts from behind the scenes to oust him as head of the North East Football League organizing committee.

Huggins named a top football official here, whom he claimed had made public pronouncements to have him replaced as head of the league and noted that other attempts were made previously to “hijack” the league, but they were short-lived.

Unfazed about the encroachment of an “illegal” organization, Huggi-ns said that GASA is moving forward with its plans to promote several sporting disciplines in the Georgetown area.

“It (GASA) was in dormancy for a while; it has been revived and we have a constitution in place… we have (an) executive in place, we have sub-committees … We are going to run all of the sporting disciplines in the area, but most of the sports will be open,” Huggins projected.

He indicated that several disciplines such as tennis and swimming, which are foreign to the area, will be introduced.

Also among the plans is the renaming of the football competition, which, according to Huggins, will be the “Georgetown Area Sports Association Football Competition,” for which they will be seeking affiliation from the SVGFF.

Huggins told SEARCHLIGHT that the National Sports Council has already been informed of the active return of GASA, as the organization will also serve as the management committee of the hard court in the area and the Chilli Playing Field, which is presently undergoing a refurbishment.(RT)