An official statement from Bill Drossos, player manager for Kyah Simon and Tameka Butt consequent to the suspension of the WPS in the USA.
Kyah and Tameka are of course “gutted” about the situation and to be told that they will not be playing for the Boston Breakers in the WPS this season. They were of course looking forward to the experience.
From the outset, I can only commend the professionalism shown by the Boston Breakers through the process of signing Kyah and Tameka and for the way they have handled the devastating news of the past 24hours. Lee Billiard and Ryan Wood have been fantastic to deal with and the club remains supportive of Kyah and Tameka.
Both Kyah and Tameka had offers from clubs around the world, specifically Sweden, Germany, France, Denmark and the UK before agreeing to terms with the Boston Breakers so this decision by the WPS after the clubs in the USA were assured the competition would proceed and were allowed to contract players is extremely disappointing. Accordingly, we will be looking at all legal avenues and recourse available to Kyah and Tameka on the termination of their contracts.
Given a lot of clubs around the world have already firmed up on their squads for 2012, it will be difficult now to secure other contracts overseas for Kyah and Tameka. However, we are already in discussion with other clubs and we are pursuing other opportunities for them.
Kyah and Tameka are high quality players and high quality people which is why the Boston Breakers were so keen to get them to the USA. I have no doubt they will be prime targets for overseas clubs.
Of course the situation is now made more difficult with the many players now available who had come to terms with WPS clubs in the USA so no doubt they will also now be very active in trying to secure positions elsewhere.
Being only 20 years old, Kyah and Tameka have time on their side and so there is definitely no rush to get them overseas. The deal has to be right for them and has to reflect the quality that they would bring to any club.
A full story will follow on w-league.com.au tomorrow.
This statement is from the player manager for Tameka Butt and Kyah Simon and is not an official statement from the FFA or the Westfield W-League.
