Saint Lucian ballers in Jamaica transfer tangle

Saint Lucian international footballers Vino Barclett and Melvin Doxilly have been teammates since their early teens, playing together for the national team, and then for Cavalier SC, with whom they enjoyed success in the Jamaica Premier League. Now, the two are reunited in a fight to continue their careers in Jamaica. 

Barclett, a 26-year-old from Vieux Fort, was adjudged the best goalkeeper in the Caribbean fewer than two years ago, after helping the Kingston club lift their first Caribbean Cup title. Since 2021, he has appeared in 102 matches for Cavalier, recording 43 clean sheets. In 2024-25, he played 29 games.

Just turned 28, Doxilly, from Caye Mange, Gros Islet, is an uncompromising defender who has appeared for three clubs in the JPL, playing midfield, centre back and right fullback. In 2022-23, he helped Mount Pleasant FA to the national title. 

Now, both players are on the outs with their respective clubs, but their efforts to reunite with JPL leaders Montego Bay have proven unsuccessful. The players say the matter is in the hands of their lawyer, Andrew Werners, who has been speaking out in the Jamaican media to protest the slow pace of progress.

Werners, based in Toronto, Canada, is a former legal counsel to the World Leagues Association and the Canadian Soccer Players Association. He is the founder and principal of Pitchside Sports Consulting, a football regulatory advisory operating across Canada, the Caribbean and the wider Concacaf region.

According to Doxilly, he and Barclett have been advised by Werners that if they are not getting game time with their current clubs, FIFA regulations allow them to move on. The reference is likely to Section 4, Article 15 of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players.

It says: “An established professional [referring to a player aged 21 or older] who has, in the course of the season, appeared in fewer than ten per cent of the official matches in which his club has been involved may terminate his contract prematurely on the ground of sporting just cause.” 

Barclett handed his notice to Cavaliers in July, and is yet to see action on the pitch. Doxilly has been involved in just one match for Mount Pleasant this term, the season opener. 

“August 24, 2025, we played a game against Montego Bay. I played the whole game. After that, I haven’t played for four months,” Doxilly told St Lucia Times. “Just training, training, training. Even for the Caribbean Cup, they had players who were not eligible to play, travelling with the team, and I was eligible to play, and they left me in Jamaica.”

Werners says that the Jamaica Football Federation has been frustrating the process, failing to input the registrations to the FIFA Transfer Matching System, months after the requests were made. Werners has reportedly filed a protest with FIFA.

The situation is a difficult one for Saint Lucia men’s head coach Stern John, as two of his most experienced and reliable players have gone months without time on the pitch. Saint Lucia has various Concacaf and FIFA engagements this year, and both men would normally be automatic picks. Doxilly has served as captain of the Piton Boyz on occasion, and Barclett has made it into the team of the week more than once in Concacaf play.

Montego Bay United recently acquired the services of another Saint Lucian player, young forward Kegan Caull. There are two other Saint Lucians currently in the JPL: goalkeeper Darren Donaie at Molynes United and right back Alvinus Myers at Spanish Town FC.