By Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor 
Brown - File
AMIDST A club vs country row that developed on Sunday, all national Under-23 footballers were given the green light to represent their teams in matches yesterday.
Technical director Carl Brown took a position to withdraw the nationals, who will leave next week for final round Olympic qualifiers in Mexico, from Sunday's Wray and Nephew National Premier League end of second round and JFF Under-21 finals at the Harbour View Mini Stadium.
The clubs participating in the junior final Harbour View and winners Arnett Gardens adhered to the request.
However, the move was resisted by NPL finalists Rivoli and Tivoli United and, following a meeting between JFF president Crenston Boxhill, who was present at the ground and Brown, permission was granted to players from both clubs to compete in the match.
"We're very cautious right now," said Brown. "We have a set of players that we have been preparing for the past 18 months. We have a tournament that we leave here for on Monday. The clubs are not in agreement and we understand that, but it's just a desire from us as the coaching staff," he said.
Some of the players' clubs were involved in Jackie Bell KO quarter-final matches yesterday.
"We had the same problem today," Brown told The Gleaner. "It has happened across the world with both club and country, we don't think it's any different here.
"We've gotten requests in the past not to play players ... we've refused from time to time and we have granted the wish too."
"The clubs made a similar request for the players today and we have given them permission. We have to keep our fingers crossed and hope that nothing happens seriously. If there are any serious injuries then one understands where we are at," Brown explained. "We can only make the request. We can't stop them."
COACH DISAPPOINTED
Some coaches have hit out at Brown for his stance.
"I was very, very disappointed that he felt that there was a need to remove players from that level of activity," said Bradley Stewart, coach of Rivoli United. "While I recognise that he has a concern, the bottom line is that players are owned by clubs and the clubs must have use of their players when they are not involved in the international programme.
"You are at a final and the club which provides consistent and continuous sustenance of these players is then deprived of their use? The fact that it's a mid-season final, given that you have sponsors, the technical director and JFF should want the football presented at its highest level," he argued, adding that "our national coach comes out of the club system. I would have thought he would have had some level of empathy for clubs."
Harbour View's coach Donovan Hayles, said: "It's a total disrespect to the clubs, without dialogue, to tell their players not to represent them (clubs), who are paying the players throughout the year to pay football. Where the development of our (Jamaica) football is concerned it's an insult to the league and the clubs."
He added: "It's a totally unfair situation ... It is a double standard. You have a mixture of players who represent the country from overseas and they can't be told that they can't represent their club.
