Beach football officials differ with GFF Boss’ account of travel saga

May 09, 2013 Sports

By Michael Benjamin
Following an uncompromising stance to support a team of beach footballers in its quest to represent Guyana at the CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship currently being contested in the Bahamas, which resulted in the abortion of the trip, executives of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) came under fire from Head of Competition of the Beach Soccer Worldwide, Josep Ponset which saw them scrambling to facilitate the team’s participation at the

LAYING IT BARE: Mr. Xavier (L) and Mr. Tappin detail the media of the reasons for the aborted trip.

eleventh hour, all to no avail.
To this effect, Manager/Team Administrator, Mark Xavier and assistant coach, Rollin Tappin convened a press conference at the Water Chris Hotel, Waterloo Street Georgetown yesterday afternoon to outline their side of the story while setting the record straight. Subsequently, Mr. Xavier made some revelations that have put the newly installed GFF boss, Christopher Matthias in the spotlight. The saga had its genesis when a 15 man squad selected by the Guyana Beach Football Association (GBFA) to participate in the above mentioned championships in Nassau Bahamas, which got underway yesterday and runs to May 12 next, were forced to abandon plans after failing to receive the blessings and support of the ruling body.
Shortly after the team management had called off the trip, Kaieteur Sport had engaged Mr. Mathias for an explanation and he had stated that he was totally ignorant of any arrangements pertaining to the team’s participation in the tournament. He had also debunked claims made by the two administrators that he was asked to meet the team one night prior to its departure to relay his blessings. Further, Mr. Matthias had denied committing a prescribed sum, as stated by Mr. Xavier, to the team’s participation in the tournament.
During the telephone interview, the GFF President had informed Kaieteur Sport that he was in constant contact with President of the GBFA, Garth Nelson, via email and at no time was he informed that either Xavier or Tappin were representatives of the entity. “They are not executives nor are they legal representatives of the Guyana Beach Football Association,” the GFF boss had adamantly declared.
Mr. Xavier said that he was aghast by such blatant lies and produced a document signed by Mr. Mathias, countersigned by General Secretary, Noel Adonis and authenticated with the seal of the GFF that acknowledged the existence of the team as well as the portfolios of Xavier and Rollins. The letter was later dispatched to CONCACAF, an indication of Guyana’s participation in the tournament.
On Tuesday morning last, after the team had encountered difficulties at the travel office, Mr. Xavier had attempted to solicit assistance from Mr. Matthias to vouch for them so that the team could have travelled on time. Mr. Xavier explained that he had attempted to get the GFF boss to vouch for the team to the tune of 4 tickets. He said that the tickets were already guaranteed from reputable businesses but would have been honoured at a later date.
He said that he was unable to contact Mr. Matthias and had sought the assistance of Mark Phillips who acted as an intermediary. Despite Xavier’s best efforts he was unable to solicit assistance from Matthias. He then sought help from Aubrey Major but that too reached a brick wall after personnel at the airline remained staunch that only Mr. Matthias could have given the requisite directive to defer payment for a later date. In the end the team was forced to abandon the trip.
Further, Xavier questioned Mr. Adonis’ integrity after he claimed that the team management failed to produce the requisite proof to substantiate their claims that several members of the corporate community were willing to pick up the tab for the tickets.
Mr. Xavier said that he remained in contact with the General Secretary and produced a list of businessmen who had committed to offset the cost of the airfare to facilitate the team’s trip. He admitted that one of these businessmen had called to say that he was no longer in a position to honour his commitment but that apart, several others were willing and able to support. “We were simply requesting that the GFF hierarchy vouch for us and we produced enough evidence to substantiate our claims but all to no avail,” lamented Xavier. In an earlier interview Mr. Adonis had told Kaieteur Sport that Mr. Xavier was unable to satisfy his executives that the commitment would have been upheld.
Meanwhile, the situation took an interesting twist after Mr. Adonis, dispatched a correspondence to Mr. Mathias and several other local football administrators to inform of Guyana’s non participation in the tournament. He also dispatched a similar document to the Head of Competition of the Beach Soccer Worldwide, Josep Ponset. According to reports, upon receiving the mail, a clearly upset Mr. Ponset instructed that all efforts should be made to have Guyana in the Bahamas for their engagement yesterday afternoon. The directive triggered off a flurry of activities and Mr. Xavier revealed that he received a call from Mr. Adonis late Tuesday night instructing him to have the team ready for travel.
Mr. Xavier said that Mr. Adonis also attached conditions saying that the management of the team would be replaced by Lawrence Griffith and Mark Phillips over Xavier and Tappin. Xavier said that his principal interest was to see the team off to the championships and despite the fact that neither Griffith nor Phillips was integral to the team’s preparation, he (Xavier) was only too happy to see the youngsters attend the championships.
Consequently, the players were called out at around 21:30hrs on Tuesday night while the GFF administrators attempted to procure enough seats on a late flight. In the end, their efforts proved futile as the time proved insufficient as the airline in question were unable to provide adequate seating at such short notice.
Meanwhile, both Tappin and Xavier lamented Matthias’ inefficient handling of the matter. The latter administrator adamantly stated that the GFF boss has placed the sport in disrepute and coming so early on the heels of his ascension to office, casts an ominous pall over local football administration.
Both gentlemen had uncomplimentary prognosis of Mr. Matthias’ style of leadership, but it was Tappin who tersely summed up the situation, “Mr. Matthias shot those footballers at point blank range and should do the decent thing and resign.”