Kicked off City bans soccer players as punishment for its spectators by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR The new soccer season has started as last year’s ended for the 200 players of the 18-year-old West End Recreational Soccer League: without any soccer. Last summer, players had their season ended early in order to allow their field at Oxford Park to be resurfaced with artificial turf. "After they kicked us off on August 12, there was no work done there for weeks. We could have finished our season," says retired accountant Earl L. Gordon, the league’s longstanding president. This year the city has refused the league-whose players and fans are almost entirely black-permission to start its schedule, citing chronic misbehaviour among those who attend the games. Gordon says he knew of no such problems when he mailed in the requisite application forms on February 22. Indeed, he had planned a gala opening for the season kickoff June 9. "We wanted to invite some dignitaries and make an event of it," says Gordon, who in the past has organized countless plaques and banquets for the league. But the usual rubberstamp wasn’t forthcoming this time. "It usually takes about four weeks to get the papers in the mail, but when nothing came, we asked about it but we kept getting runarounds and excuses," says Gordon. Eventually the league received an official letter citing alleged problems with alcohol and marijuana use among spectators during the four-hour Wednesday and Sunday evening soccer sessions. The letter also refers to spectator littering, illegal parking and misplaced urination as grounds for suspending the league. "What does that have to do with our soccer league?" asks Gordon. "If that’s happening, then let the police come in and arrest whoever they have to arrest, leave us out of it." Gordon says city administrators told him that police prefer not to confront the crowds because they are "afraid of a riot." "The police are afraid? Are they playing the race card? Cops can pick up their phone and get 10 cars up there. They have all the firepower," he says. City officials have proposed measures to thin out the crowds, including one to remove the three sets of graded benches near the field. "Where in the bylaws of the city does it say there’s a limit to the number of people allowed in a park?" asks Gordon. If up to 400 people attend games, it’s due to the league’s "high calibre of play," according to Gordon, who cites several former players who graduated to the professional ranks. The city has offered the league a series of two-week probationary permits. Gordon has countered with an offer to provide a roving four-man crew to curtail any misbehaving in the stands. He reports that the city responded "unfavourably" to the proposition. City administrators referred the Mirror’s queries to senior recreation official Bill Richardson, who did not return calls by presstime. Since its resurfacing last year, the new artificial-turf soccer field at Oxford and Upper Lachine remains unused as both nets sit chained away from the field. Meanwhile, Gordon says his players are getting "boisterous" under their enforced inaction. "What are these men going to do with their spare time if they don’t play soccer? What’s the solution, to build more prisons and put them all inside?" :