 Yeah, right across the Caribbean Sea, we're focusing on Antigua and Barbuda because a showdown looms at the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association, ABFA, with several members questioning the legitimacy of the association's current leadership. Everton Gonzalez beat Barbara Cote's 32 votes to 28 in the April 2022 elections. It marked a fourth consecutive presidential term for Gonzalez. But since that victory, the 61-year-old has struggled with his health and has been unable to fulfill his duties as president. Several members of the executive believe that given Gonzalez's inactivity, his vacant post should be up for contest. They say that constitutionally, this should have happened at the 2022 Congress, but none was held, forcing them to call an extraordinary general meeting in October of this year. And it was the calling of that EGM that created discomfort within the governing administration. Barbara Cote so challenged Gonzalez in April 2022 and who already expressed her desire in writing to vibe over the position of president joins us to break down this controversy. Good afternoon and welcome, Barbara Cote. How are you doing, first of all? Good afternoon. I'm doing well. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for having me. Yeah, it's an absolute pleasure to have you. Tell us exactly where this situation is at. We've already laid out how this all started and why it all started. There was no Congress last year, that's 2022, and an extraordinary general meeting was called last month. Take us from there. So what happened when that extraordinary Congress was held on the 1st of October? We did not have a quorum, but because of the constitution it gives us the ability to come back in 48 hours. We knew that there was the tropical theme that some was passing, so we made a determination and agreed that we would have to come on the 1st available day. Having done that and submitting our decisions from to the executive, they came back and they asked for, we gave them a deadline and they asked for an extension. Having gotten the extension themselves, they then decided that meeting that was held was invalid. And why was the determination made that the meeting was invalid? Simply because it wasn't held 48 hours after, but we are saying any right-thinking person would know with a storm that is coming, we would have to use the very next day that is available. So based on that, they determined that it wasn't invalid. Even more so was the person who responded to us. He responded in his correspondence as co-president acting and that is an issue for us as well. All right, so let's deal with the co-president acting because in December last year President Gonzalez had sent out a communique to the membership of the Antigua and Barbuda Association. And in that letter, he named two individuals as co-presidents to run their fears of the organization while he was out ill. Daryl Michael is one of those individuals and the other, Gwendolyn Sammon. And you're suggesting that even those appointments at this stage might be unconstitutional? Yes, and I'm not even suggesting it's actually stated right in the Constitution where it says if the president is absent and I'm reading article 37, if the president is absent or unavailable, the longest-serving vice president available shall deputize. So we have the minutes from the 2012 Congress where it states on that that Gwendolyn Sammon was in fact the vice president in 2012 and Daryl Michael was in fact the member. So even for that, we know for sure that everything is there, it's written, it's documented that the appointment is invalid. So for him to even respond to us, he doesn't have the validity to be able to do that for us. What has the leadership of the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association been communicating to the members? Because there was that letter in December 2022 sent out by the president where the appointments of Sammon and Michael were announced. Has there been any further communication between the president and the membership of the association? Or has everything since then come from Michael and Sammon who have been put in charge? That is a good question because we have not heard anything from the president. What has happened is that even as recent as October, in September rather, when we submitted a letter to the ABFA where 28 members, 28 members submitted a letter asking for the Extraordinary Congress, no response came back. There wasn't any response either from the co-acting president or the general secretary. So what happened was that as we continued along to prepare ourselves for the Extraordinary Congress was when we got a correspondence coming from the general secretary stating that they had in fact reported to FIFA that they intended to have an ordinary Congress from October. So that is the only time when we would have heard something from the FA. Now this is not something in keeping with the Constitution because there ought to have been a lot more communications coming out. Nonetheless, that came out and what happened they started sending out the convocations and the other information from the ABFA regarding the ordinary Congress that was scheduled for 30th of October, Monday 30th of October. However, on Friday the 27th, if I'm correct, another email came up, no explanation, simply stating that that Congress will now be held on Saturday, on Saturday the 11th of November. All right. And so let's look forward to the 11th of November then. What does Barbara Quartz want to happen based on what the Constitution allows you, allows for? That question can be answered very straightforward because in Article 38 and it reads, Candidate for the Office of the President and I'm reading number five and it states, if the president is permanently or temporarily prevented from performing his official function, the longest serving vice president shall represent him until the next Congress. This Congress shall elect a new president if necessary. And we are saying that it is in fact necessary. Why would you suggest that it is necessary as we look at Article 38 here? Well, can you give me your understanding of if necessary means in a situation like that? Because the president has not been able to fulfill his duties. We have not been able to get any direct communication coming out from him, where he is actually leading, his responsibility is to leave these Congresses. So for us, even on Saturday, we will wait to see if in fact the president is there to lead the Congress. So we have not seen him fulfilling his obligation, fulfilling his whatever his requirements are as the president, as the legal person for the ADFA. So those things have not been happening. It's either Darryl Michael, who is the person who has been acting as co-president. So we have not seen the president or we're simply stating from the correspondence that we got back in December, where he would have indicated his illness officially to us. We're saying he's not able to fulfill his duties. Yeah. Well, our understanding, Barbara, is that he has been sort of missing in action for about six months or so. Is it true that there was a report that he's on the improve and physically is now becoming well enough to reassume his position? Well, that has not been officially communicated to the membership. Okay. That has not been officially communicated to the membership. So we're hoping maybe when Saturday comes, we will see that the president is in fact there. He's able to leave the Congress. Congresses are usually two hours, two to three hours. So we're hoping that if that is the case, we will see what happens come on November the 11th. But we have not had any official communications coming out of the ABFA indicated otherwise. Yeah. Well, Barbara, your loss to him in the last elections back in 2022, 19 months ago was pretty marginal. 32 28 would suggest that you have significant support in the ABFA. Would you say that the ground swell of your narrative at the moment is gaining traction and the position you now hold on the Sportsmax zone today is a popular position in Antigone, Barbuda's football. Yes. What has happened is that there hasn't been any communication coming out of the ABFA. There hasn't been any leadership coming out of the ABFA. We haven't started our flagship games or leagues and those have been slated for the 25th of November. There's so much indecisiveness coming out of the ABFA. We're saying that we need to have a steady leadership to complete the mandate that was given to Mr. Gonzalez. And let's put aside everything and think about how we can improve the product of football. Persons have been saying that they need to see this coming out and they're confident that I can do it. But we will wait and see what happens on Saturday. Yeah. Your detractors in Antigone, Barbuda, Barbara, appear not to be convinced about your suitability to take over. We have heard from at least one or two Antigone football fans that your club wings is in disarray at the moment. So the club that you are attached with doesn't represent for you a good look for a leadership position. I beg to differ. When we started our season for 2023-24, we actually have a software where we have online registration. We have as many as over 50 children in our football program. We have our coaches who have contracts with us. They receive a stipend. We have a very structured a very structured situation, a very structured organization of wings. We have persons who as members will pay in their dues. So I am not sure. I know for a fact what has happened was that my gender was an issue for some persons. And that still seems to be an issue. But when we look at what a person brings to the table and their capabilities, we do need to look past the gender issue and look at what persons bring to the table. Yeah. And well, I guess to add to that point, I could suggest that Devita Samuel, the head coach of the Grenades team, becoming the first woman to head coach a Premier League winning team in Antigone, Barbuda, would speak strongly for the gender issue in your favor. Exactly. And in wings also, we have in our second division, a female coach, Georgia Tillouis. And she has been around football for quite some time. She is very capable. Wings is not at the bottom of the league in our division. So we do have females in wings, in CPTSA wings that are doing very well. Yeah, Barbara Cotes will continue to track the story and we'll see what comes out of the ordinary Congress on Saturday. And we'll catch up next week. Thank you very much for this opportunity. Have a good evening. All right. Yeah, we will be following that story out of Antigua and Barbuda. Stay with us on this abbreviated version of the Sportsman zone. Lance Wichika. Yeah, he'll be a jockey at the track after this.