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(Orlando) - The Southern Amateur Football Association has dropped the troubled organizations of the Tampa Bay Bulldogs and the Broward Country Panthers from league membership and the 2012 regular season schedule. The announcement came via email from SAFA President Anthony Smith Sr to team owners yesterday.

As a statement in his "State of Affairs" email, Smith told the owners that he was "put in a precarious situation by one team and left guessing on another. So, being the President and having to be concerned about the overall state of the league, I was forced to make some tough decisions."

What Smith was referring to was the sudden unstable status of both the Panthers and the Bulldogs.

Panthers owner Brian Jones is apparently in a financial tug-of-war with Detia Solomon, former Panthers team owner who reportedly sold the organization to Jones back on November 3rd of last year. Jones apparently still owes Solomon a balance of an unknown amount and the team's uniforms are being held by Solomon as collateral. The dispute supposedly came to a head on January 21st when Jones sent SAFA Vice-President Mark K. Trueblood a text stating that the Panthers were "withdrawing" from the league and "shutting down for 2012".

Trueblood immediately notified Smith who made contact with Jones and was told that he (Jones) was struggling to put a team together and was experiencing some serious problems with current players. So, to avoid the stress of putting together a less than adequate team, Jones would be shutting down his organization for a season and attempt to come back in 2013. At least, that is how he presented it to Smith.

Not satisfied with Jones' story, Smith made contact with Solomon who laid out a completely different take on the saga.

Solomon informed Smith that Jones was being less than truthful about his current status. According to Solomon, Jones still owes him money from the transaction involving the sale of the Panthers and that he indeed was holding the team's uniforms "hostage" until he receives the money that is owed to him from Jones.

Furthermore, Solomon told Smith that Jones has a full team, but unknown to SAFA officials has been in contact with league representatives from the United Football Federation about his plight. Reportedly, Jones was told by the UFF that they would provide him with team uniforms if he became a member for the 2012 season. Solomon told Smith that Jones has decided to take the UFF up on its offer.

Jones denies the report from Solomon and insists that he is not playing in 2012. Yet, a visit to the UFF website reveals the Panthers' team logo now resting on its team membership page.

Trueblood contacted UFF officials last Saturday about the Panthers (January 21st) and was not able to confirm that they were being accepted into the UFF. However, he was convinced that the UFF was not revealing the truth about their contact with the Panthers or any other team in the SAFA. So much so, Trueblood reportedly warned UFF officials that they were treading into "dangerous territory" and were to cease from any further contact with any SAFA member or face legal consequences of "tampering".

For the record, UFF officials have denied initiating contact with any team from the SAFA. However, Trueblood and Smith aren't buying it.

"We've caught them in plenty of matters where they conveniently failed to disclose facts of their contact with our member teams before", said Trueblood. "They're no different from a lot of other leagues out there who conduct themselves in the same manner. They're a joke."

"Classless", said Smith of the UFF. "They've lacked the integrity and ethics of doing business from the start, so as much as it is no surprise, I'm still unhappy about their tactics. Sad part is, there are so many people at this level of football who conduct themselves the same way and at times worse!"

Smith stated that he was not going to get involved with the financial dispute between Jones and Solomon and thus felt it was best to sever ties with their organization by halting any further attempts at retaining them as members of the league.

As for the Bulldogs, SAFA officials discovered that their organization was struggling with players and had failed to secure a home venue despite having said this past November that they (the Bulldogs) had rights to a field in Thonotasassa just east of Tampa. In addition, there were reports of misconduct by a Bulldogs coach during a recent exhibition game vs. the Anclote Pirates of the UFF. Tampa Bay's head coach and players supposedly walked-off the field at halftime after the coach was removed from the contest by the head referee.

Smith was less than impressed by the report on the Bulldogs in that game which was reported to him by multiple sources from inside and out of the SAFA. Just days later, Smith received a phone call from a key administrator that she had resigned from the team over a dispute with the team owner, Cherylene Levy.

Smith was disappointed with the news of the Bulldogs' current state of affairs, especially after he, Trueblood and SAFA Vice-Presidenty John C. Walters had met with Levy back in late October to assist her with getting her team organized for the 2012 season.

"We went away from that meeting very encouraged with the future of the Tampa Bay Bulldogs", said Smith. "However, we can only do so much as a league, The bulk of the workload is upon the team owner to put together a staff to assist with accomplishing any goals and missions that are set forth. Now, as a league, we have to sever ties with the Tampa Bay Bulldogs so that other members do not suffer."

Neither Levy or Jones could be contacted, and the league released a revised regular season schedule for 2012 that now does not include either the Panthers or the Bulldogs.

Several owners who were contacted stated that they were happy with the SAFA and how league officials have handled the matter involving the Bulldogs and Panthers.

"No one wanted it to come to this", said one team owner. "But, if left for speculation on what those two teams (Bulldogs and Panthers) were going to do, we all would have been left hanging and there would've been a financial penalty for all of us. I defintely feel we're better off as a league."

Neither Smith or Trueblood would comment on whether they would consider either the Bulldogs or Panthers for membership in the future stating only that it is a matter to be considered by the SAFA Office of League Development.

"We're concentrating on the upcoming season and nothing else", said Smith.

Because Smith wanted to minimize the inconvenience to other league members, the newly revised regular season schedule does not reflect a traditional inner-division play among the teams in both the north and south. However, almost all of the teams in the league were able to salvage their original home dates and thus will not have to "scramble" to adjust games at their respective home venue.

"Tony did a great job as far as I'm concerned", said Trueblood, whose Mariners were forced to change a home date in order to accomodate the new schedule and minimize hardships to other teams in the league.

"He was under a tremendous amount of stress due to some personal issues that came about during this same time period that no one else was aware of. There was a death in his family and he was trying to cope with that and still focus on both his own team and the league", added Trueblood.

The regular season opens in less than two weeks on February 11th.