ST JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC):

The Antigua and Barbuda Football Association have again appealed to FIFA, the world governing body, over their suspension by the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) for refusing to pay debts owed to former general secretary, Chet Greene.

In a statement on Monday, president Mervyn Richards said: "The executive of the ABFA is resolute in its position that Mr. Greene's claim should not be satisfied. We wish to assure the football fraternity that we have carefully considered this matter in our deliberations and we have taken legal advice throughout this process.

"In respect of our communica-tion with FIFA, we have been assured that we will receive a response within a few days. We solicit the patience of the general public as we work assiduously to resolve this matter."

Greene is claiming that he is owed more than EC$500,000 (US$187,265) for monies he spent on behalf of the ABFA between 2001-03 while he served as secretary general.

Last Saturday, the CFU suspended the ABFA after the local body failed to meet a January 17 deadline to pay Greene.

In a letter last month, the CFU served the ABFA an ultimatum to pay Greene or risk being suspended.

The ABFA then appealed to FIFA but only received a short communiqué from CFU indicating that they would advise on the next course of action.

"The executive of the ABFA has communicated with the highest authorities in FIFA, seeking assistance in having this suspension from the CFU lifted immediately," Richards said in his statement.

Suspension

"We have expressed concern that this purported suspension was undertaken by the executive committee of the CFU and not the full congress as required by the Constitution of the CFU.

"We have also outlined in great detail, the history of this matter to FIFA, in particular the inade-quacies of a mediation conducted by Mr. Ronald Jones, as well as the fact that the president of the CFU (Austin 'Jack' Warner) had, by letter dated 16th October 2006, formally advised Mr. Greene to refer this dispute to the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Switzerland.

"Had Mr. Greene initiated this arbitration process as he was advised by the CFU this unfor-tunate turn of events may not have arisen."