King quits Jamaica in dispute over towels, payments and curfews

Marlon King is in dispute with Jamaica after quitting the national team squad who will provide England's final World Cup warm-up opposition. The Watford striker is understood to have complained to Jamaica's football authorities and the island's sports ministry about what he sees as the unprofessional approach of the team management towards the visit to England.

King said he was angry that the team were called to convene for the international friendly against the World Cup qualifiers Ghana only 30 minutes before the kick-off. Jamaica lost the match in Leicester on Monday 4-1 and King was dismayed that only three towels were made available to players after the game.

He allowed these frustrations to spill over into a verbal attack on the Jamaican football association's president Crenston Boxhill when the pair clashed after team management alleged he had broken a curfew on Wednesday night.

King arrived back at the team hotel shortly before 2am yesterday, after enjoying a night out with his fellow Jamaica internationals Jason Euell and Jamal Campbell-Ryce, to find that his room had been locked.

"When we got back to our rooms at 2am our doors were locked and we were told by hotel security staff we had five minutes to leave," King said, adding that he then chose to "go home and clear my head".

He took a taxi from Manchester to Bromley, Kent, after the incident. He insisted that curfews had been imposed only for the final 48 hours before the game and he was therefore not in breach of any team rules.

Boxhill claimed, however, that there had been impropriety and the striker's departure from the team camp was not of his own volition.

"If one of your children breaks the rules, you deal with it accordingly. It is the same concept," said the president. "There was more to it than just breaking curfew and coming late. Marlon King was rude and unapologetic in the discussion that the management team had with him, which was what really warranted him being expelled from the camp."

King has apologised for being "rude" to Boxhill but insists that because he had known of no curfew he had nothing else for which to apologise. According to a statement on the Jamaican federation's website, Euell and Campbell-Ryce were also ejected from the squad but were reinstated after forfeiting 50% of their match fees.

According to a source close to King, it was the issue of player payments which had initially caused the dispute. "There had been a match-fee meeting for the Jamaica-based players, who were on pennies," said the source.

"The senior players, Jason Euell and Marlon in particular, spoke up on their behalf and as a result their match fees went up. The [Jamaica management team] had their back up because of that."

King, who has been replaced in the Jamaica squad by Sheffield Wednesday's Deon Burton, had offered to donate his own match fee to charitable causes in Jamaica. He has received the full support of his club Watford, for whom he scored 21 goals last season, a contribution which proved critical to the club's promotion to the Premiership via the play-offs.