Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Sep 15, 2009 Sports
Construction Company at the helm
By Edison Jefford
The absence of the much-anticipated National Sports Policy and a mediatory sports board continues to undermine the development of local sport with the emergence of every crisis that seem to have no scope for proper adjudication.
The problems in local sport are too monotonous for administrators to be so dumbfounded that solutions become habitants of the abyss. Sponsorship rows have become so common that there needs to be a mediatory mechanism in place.
There is the Sports Development Foundation in Jamaica with, among other functions, the responsibility to arbitrate between the corporate community and sport. There are others of a similar nature set up in other Caribbean countries.
Kaieteur Sport was informed of an infraction yesterday that will not have any recourse in the absence of a legislative authority to perform the functions of mediation. It was a song that was sung time immemorial like a broken record.
The proprietor of a particular Construction Company in Linden had promised the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) sponsorship monies amounting to $200,000 and the necessary commitment letter was submitted.
However, the sponsorship deal was initiated under the previous LABA administration for their First Division League, which suffered many hiccups and had to be completed during the inaugural tenure of a new LABA Executive.
Victory Valley Royals topped the League with Pistons taking second and Amelia’s Ward Jets third. It was initially agreed that the top three teams in the League would have gotten prize monies compliments of the Construction Company.
The Linden association’s constitutional process for sponsors is to have them lodge prizes, whether cash or kind, with the association as a form of guarantee. It seems as though that was not done under the previous LABA administration.
And as a result, the three teams cannot be paid their due months after the League finished its last round even though the present Executive had received correspondences that stated that the Construction Company is still committed.
This newspaper was told of a handing over ceremony that was set for Saturday where all the clubs would have received their cash prizes and event was cancelled because of the questionable absence of the Company’s proprietor.
The LABA was told that the businessman was not in the country but some officials were still able to spot him in Linden over the weekend. In essence, all the LABA has to pin this sponsor are a few commitment letters and ‘word-and-mouth’.
The previous administration handled the situation outside of the constitution and that had forced a formidable unit in Linden, Kings to boycott the tournament on grounds that there were not any guarantees that the winner will be paid. Consequentially, Kings were relegated to Division II for not competing in the League and it seems as though the club’s action are being justified. It seems as though Kings’ penalty is unjustified because they acted according to principle.
There is the issue of the sponsor refusing to produce the sponsorship money after being in a commitment; the issue of previous LABA constitutional violations and the relegation of Kings but where will mediation and solutions surface?
Sports in Guyana plead for a mediatory legislative institution and policies to protect those suspecting administrations from corporate lynching. This Construction Company was the beneficiary of mass publicity during the League.
It seems as though that the clubs that toil for months will bounce away empty-handed. It is really a sad development but it is the reality of sport in Guyana.
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