Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 05, 2014 Sports
Dear Sir,
After not commenting publicly upon the state of local football, which in my estimation is at its lowest level ever, primarily due to a lack of vision, encompassing total development in a structured manner within a specific timeframe, for meaningful achievements, Editor, as a consequence my basic reason for penmanship emanates from the publication of a letter in your newspaper (26.07.14) captioned “Faizal Khan gives Mathias an apology deadline over unprovoked attack on Golden Jaguars”.
In erstwhile welcome to the public school of thought on local football, and while I do hope that your letter wouldn’t just be one off for public edification and justification. Nevertheless, may the grace of Allah and the fellowship of the Holy Prophet; be with thou now and forever more”! Since your bold imitative in exposing a downright fallacy, at the behest of the GFF President, continues to lend credence to the philosophical voice of the legendary King of Reggae, Jamaican, Robert Nesta Marley; “Only a fool leans upon his own misunderstanding”.
That the GFF President could have gone public and decry the Golden Jaguars and the Lady Jags, not primarily out of (non) performance rather out of their place of birth. Once again “Subjectiveness remains the antidote of objectiveness”! Wherein the lack of a proper developmental plan that have within its calendar of activities competitions being played from the under -11 level right up to the seniors, within each association.
Suffice it to say that the restructuring of clubs continues to be a dismal failure, since to date not one association has played youth football consistently in all the age –limit categories. That within a period of 15 months of Matthias’ 24 months tenure, there is absolutely nothing tangible to show! An expanded National League; that offers no practicable solution for development. No more than 4 inter-association tournaments, if so much. Participation in 2 international CFU regional tournaments, of which a female under -15 team played 3 matches; lost all, scored no goals and conceded 40! The male under-17 also played 3 matches; 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss; scored 4 goals, conceded 6 for a goal difference of -2.
Then to read the coach in his comments mentioning “inadequate time for preparation and not sticking to game plan, especially in the final match against the host Dominican Republic”, that Guyana lost by a 0-3 margin.
What was the yardstick for selection? Did every association coordinate an under-17 League/round robin/K.O for their respective affiliates successfully, ahead of the GFF inter-association tournament?
Editor, prior to the convening of the GFF-AGM in 2013, when Matthias was elected President, I had written about reforming local football, with competitions at the inter-association level being something of the past, since Guyana maybe the only country in the world playing this format!
Rather club champions under the auspices of the GFF, at the under-11; u-13, u-15, u-17, u-19, u-21, u-23 and seniors ought to be the acceptable norm, along with a second tier league with more clubs, supplementing the national league.
Any association that fails to coordinate a competition at any level automatically is debarred from participating in any GFF competition at the respective division.
And their player (s) also debarred from national selection/representation. However, as “old habits die hard” the continuous path of inter-association football and continued under-development continues unabatedly! Maybe, the Technical Development Officer should be vocal in this area!
That an association devoid of a proper executive, with no competition (s) for an extremely lengthy period of time, can still have a player invited to trials, this backward step due to “overt politicking” places more burden on the coaching staff, but who cares when the vote (s) matter!
Finally, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, both of whom had qualified for the 1998 and 2006 World Cup respectively made use of overseas born players, with traditional roots by way of parentage to aid their qualification. Should Guyana devoid of a proper developmental structure be any different?
The success of Germany in capturing the 20th edition of the 2014 World Cup was based on structural development over an 8-10 years period. And in building a national team non-Germans were included after residency and the relevant naturalization process.
Further, no less than 4 European born players represented U.S.A, at the behest of their head coach, a German born, who would be looking for more players in the future. Can Guyana be compared to either of the countries? So, to decry the contribution (s) of the overseas born players is indeed a backward step.
Moreover, when it’s taken in consideration that coming from a (semi) professional background, along with colleges/university (female), offers a higher level of training, coaching, and management. This enables locals to compete and train harder for selection and just not saying “bound to play”.
And last but not least some of the players can be used as resource personnel in conducting coaching clinics for junior players, should the GFF include the requirement.
Respectfully yours,
Lester Sealey.
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
Apr 19, 2024
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