ROSEAU, Do­mini­ca- Gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the Do­mini­ca Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion, Clif­ford Celaire has been sacked just days af­ter pres­i­dent Patrick John was dumped from the top po­si­tion in the or­gan­i­sa­tion. Celaire was axed by new pres­i­dent Glen Eti­enne, the for­mer first vice-pres­i­dent who took over the helm of the DFA from John. Celaire, who news­pa­per re­ports here say was a John loy­al­ist, has been re­placed by Er­ic­son De­gal­laire, the for­mer pres­i­dent of the Do­mini­ca Foot­ball Ref­er­ees As­so­ci­a­tion. DFA pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer Ger­ald George said the or­gan­i­sa­tion's con­sti­tu­tion pro­vid­ed for the pres­i­dent to choose a gen­er­al sec­re­tary that he was "com­fort­able work­ing with".

He al­so said the DFA board had giv­en Eti­enne their full back­ing on the move. Celaire, mean­while, will re­main in his post of women's foot­ball co­or­di­na­tor. "He has done a great job in that area and we will want him to re­main and con­cen­trate his ef­forts in that re­gard," George said. At the An­nu­al Gen­er­al Con­fer­ence last week­end, clubs vot­ed over­whelm­ing­ly to sus­pend John for the re­main­der of his term which was sched­uled to end in 2015. John is cur­rent­ly serv­ing a year-long ban im­posed by foot­ball's world gov­ern­ing body, FI­FA, for his role in last year's cash-for-votes scan­dal. A for­mer Do­mini­ca prime min­is­ter, the sus­pen­sion means John will not re­turn to the DFA once the FI­FA ban ex­pires next year. (CMC)