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A TFA negotiating team met with the Referees Association and negotiated an agreement in which the Association decided to accept $44,430, almost $20,000 less than their original figure to service the League.

However, this was predicated on the fact that they would referee 42 games less.

They also said that they would not be officiating in games further than Goodwood.

The Zonal Conference games would have to be reduced to accept the offer, according to Jack and this was a major contention with the Zonal teams who like the East teams felt that they were being sacrificed and voted against the proposal.

Jack's announcement that the competition will commence on July 7 and that they will use temporary referees caused a ball of confusion that brought the meeting to an abrupt end.

There is also another bone of contention that has now become a serious issue, according to Jack.

After shaking hands on the deal, the referees subsequently informed the TFA that in addition to the conditions negotiated, Jack must apologise on a national media to the Association for derogatory remarks he made about them on the radio station 95.5 FM, in an interview before they resumed their services.

Jack said that he would not be apologising because he believes that they have misunderstood his statement in which he used the word terrorist and is taking it out of context.

Tobago News spoke to officials from some of the teams and the general consensus was that they all wanted to play football but some believed that using temporary referees is setting a bad precedent that could back-fire later on.

However, some of the team officials also said that if playing with temporary officials was the only solution and most of the teams agree to play they would participate.