BOYS' TOWN are hopping mad following a ruling by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Competition's Committee on Monday to impose a two-match ban on hosting Wray and Nephew National Premier League matches at its Collie Smith Drive home field.

The decision follows last week's shooting incident in the area two minutes into the second half of the match it hosted against Westmoreland team Reno.

Players and officials were forced to take cover, lying face-down to safeguard themselves while the shots were being fired outside the playing field.

The shooting stemmed from an ongoing feud between warring factions in the community.

The JFF committee also ruled that the aborted game should be replayed for the remaining 43 minutes at a neutral venue and said spectators should be sensitised about the negative repercussions that could affect the club for any act that disrupts a game.

In an interview carried in yesterday's edition of The Gleaner the Boys' Town team's coach, Andrew Price, was livid because his team was not allowed representation at the JFF Competi-tion's Committee meeting to deal with the incident.

As such, he says they will be appealing the decision and "want legal representation".

He went further to say "... precedent has been set before with incidents of the same nature taking place and nobody has been found culpable ... "

The request by Price for the stated purposes is fair.

To ban a playing field is a very strong decision. So it follows therefore that in any circumstance which requires such judgement, the alleged perpetrators - Boys' Town Football Club in this instance - must be given a fair chance to defend itself.

Lesser matters

This is the case for even lesser disciplinary matters, such as red card offences, where players are allowed representation in front of a committee before judgement is handed down.

On the second matter relating to 'precedent' this makes the decision appear harsher.

There are several other communities in which shots have been fired during matches and the fields have not been banned. Matches have been called off at some of those same venues because of gunfire in the respective areas, and players and officials have had to lie face down for cover on those occasions.

Worse, only recently a coach was killed in front his primary school team at Tinson Pen, the same venue where another man was shot last year.

Football matches of all sorts are still being played at the field.

In this Boys' Town case, the JFF may well have decided that enough is enough and it's time to buck the trend.

However, this will not stop Boys' Town from feeling slighted.

There are some heavy disadvantages that come with not having a home field as well. The most basic would include rental and travelling costs.

There are some responsibilities, too, that come with a home field. Prime among those would be the security of players, officials, patrons and all others at the ground.

The best solution lies in the community itself being safe because only then will the safety of others be guaranteed, including those attending football matches at the playground at Collie Smith Drive.

That, is an issue Boys' Town will have to deal with, but as long as it's ball as usual at fields in other communities where shots have been fired during matches, then Boys' Town, having been denied proper representation, have every reason to be hopping mad.