The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

IN recent years, the debate between several organisations has raged over who represents the Bahamas as the true governing body for American football.

To that end, executives of these governing bodies are seeking to create a single universal group to chart the path of the sport locally and represent the country at the international level.

Representatives from the Commonwealth American Football League (CAFL), the Bahamas Flag Football League (BFFL), and Grand Bahama Flag Football League made the official announcement yesterday to declare their intentions.

Much like the well documented baseball debate, they cited the Bahamas American Football Federation, led by LaLisa Anthony, as  “a major obstacle” preventing this unified body from being formed.

“As a part of the growth of the sport, we acknowledged that there needs to be one governing body, encouraging the sport of football in The Bahamas as well as the managing of Bahamian teams both nationally and internationally,” said BFFL president Jayson Clarke. “All members are aware of a major hindrance to that goal, in particular international play via the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) being the Bahamas American Football Federation (BAFF).

“For this reason, the Bahamian group representing all active football leagues in The Bahamas reached out to the president of BAFF, but there has been no response. BAFF was formed in 2008 as a legal entity and was subsequently labelled as the body related to IFAF. After some activity that led to two youth football teams travelling to play abroad and some affiliation from the GBFFL, for many years little to nothing has come from BAFF toward the development of the sport in The Bahamas. According to IFAF criteria BAFF should have ceased to be recognised as an affiliate for several reasons, these include having at least one championship game every year, representing the entire country, being recognised by government officials or the national Olympic committee and having at least 10 clubs in your league.”

Mel Ferguson insisted the CAFL has recognition as the only league playing full contact American football in the country yet called for unification between the groups for the good of the sport.

“In the past 20 years I can say that this is the most impressed that I have ever been with football in this country. We have groups from Grand Bahama, Abaco, and obviously New Providence all coming together to form one organisation and I don’t think that this has ever happened,” said Ferguson. “I don’t know if it’s as divisive as it may seem. We have a strong group of presidents overseeing flag and youth football and I think with this communication with BAFF some things can get sorted out and the unification can continue. Football is on the rise in the country, and you need one body to organise things so that everyone doesn’t run off in their own directions. And the last communication that I’m aware of and that I have in my possession is that the CAFL is the governing body of football in the county, and that’s coming from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture.”

According to GBFFL president Craig “George” Smith, his organisation was forced to cede from the BAFF due to mismanagement and has seen improvement in the football product on the field ever since.

“The GBFFL was under BAFF for three years. There was a lot of stuff promised to us, which was the reason we joined in the first place, but during the time their promises failed and the league began to suffer,” Smith said. “We started out with four teams and now we have grown to 18 teams since leaving BAFF. We were paying them funds of $2.50 per player for years, but noticed that although we were putting this money in, we weren’t seeing any results.”