Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 08, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
The administration of football in Guyana is in a crisis. It has been in a crisis for a long time.
Just recently a group of associations attached to the Guyana Football Federation, the umbrella body for football associations in Guyana, passed a motion of no-confidence against the President of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF).
The move has been deemed as being inconsistent with the provisions of the GFF’s constitution and has been rejected by the incumbent President, who has only been in office for a short while. FIFA, the governing body for football internationally, has sternly indicated that it does not recognize the no-confidence motion and has explained why it does not recognize it.
This is not dissimilar to what is happening in local cricket, where the WICB has sternly indicated that it recognizes the existing Guyana Cricket Board and not any other Board that is likely to be created by statute, without the consent of the present Board.
But back to football…
Long before the present impasse within the GFF, there was a long running dispute between the Georgetown Football Association and the umbrella body, the Guyana Football Federation. That dispute ended up in court. It took a toll on the administration of local football. It was an ugly and unnecessary power struggle.
Now we have a fight taking place within the GFF itself. The only point of contention being made is not about football policy, but about the way the Federation is being administered. In other words, the ordinary observer may be tempted to categorize what is taking place in local football as a power struggle.
The same thing is happening in local cricket. There is a power struggle between two camps, and it is this power struggle that has affected the hosting of international cricket matches in Guyana.
It is also this power struggle which is being used by the government, and the economic oligarchy to which it is aligned, to take control of local cricket. The economic oligarchy is not interested in the cricket. It is interested in the money that can be made by having control of the administration of cricket.
There is a power struggle within the administration of local cricket and this power struggle has been taken too far. Those who wish to topple the present executive of the Guyana Cricket Board have powerful allies in the government and the economic oligarchy of this country. The problem is that it is the economic oligarchy that is most interested in making money out of cricket.
The plan is to control local cricket and to have strategic allies within the West Indies Cricket Board. With that control, the economic oligarchy will turn Guyana into the centrepiece of cricket in the Caribbean. The plan is to have Guyana as the base, the only base for tournaments such as the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
This is why floodlights have been erected at Albion. This is why there was a move to take over the Georgetown Cricket Club. The oligarchy needs the major cricketing venues in Guyana equipped and ready to host international matches at the same time. This is what is needed to become the sole sponsor of a regional T20 cricket tournament.
This plan is linked to other developments in the economy, including faster access to Georgetown and better hotels. The whole development of Guyana is aligned to the interests of the economic oligarchy. Long live Karl Marx!
Cricket is now big money. The oligarchy has seen the potential of tournaments such as the CPL and the Indian Premier League. It wants its own league and it wants Guyana as the base for this league. It has the money to achieve this goal. And it certainly has the ruling party on its side.
As long as the oligarchy is making money, the ruling party will also benefit. The ruling party is now dependent on the economic oligarchy for its campaign financing. And all the oligarchy has to do is to hold one major cricket match, attract about eight thousand persons to the National Stadium, charge a little over three thousand dollars per person and it will earn twenty-five million dollars to invest in the coffers of the ruling party.
This is how simple fund-raising has become for the PPP. This is why that party could have afforded to close its commercial arm. The PPP no longer has a commercial arm because it has the oligarchy on its side.
That oligarchy is interested in cricket for the money that is to be made. Football does not have that sort of money, and therefore in as much as there is also a power struggle taking place within the administration of local football, do not expect that the government will intervene with a Football Administration Bill as it did with the Cricket Administration Bill.
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