GFF commissions UEFA donated buses; to bolster GFF Youth Development Programme

Feb 29, 2020 Sports

The bilateral relationship between the Guyana Football Federation and The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), mere months old has already began to bear fruits with the latter entity donating two mini buses to the GFF through its Assist Programme.

Historic! GFF President Wayne Forde (3rd left) is joined by GS (ag) Ian Alves (2nd left) and members of the Technical Team following the commissioning of the two buses donated by UEFA.

UEFA Assist, which was set up in 2017, provides support for the other confederations and their
member associations in four specific areas – capacity building (football and operations),
development of youth football, infrastructure projects and helping UEFA’s member associations
to create cooperation programmes with associations from outside of Europe.
UEFA Assist – an assistance programme that responds to the needs of national associations and
confederations across the globe.
Through this programme, the GFF has now been further empowered to fulfill its mandate of building a solid foundation at the youth level.
A simple but historic ceremony yesterday at the GFF saw the commissioning of the two buses by President Wayne Forde with assistance from Executive Member and Rupununi Football Association President, Ryan Farias along with Technical Director, Ian Greenwood.
President Forde described the occasion as a watershed moment for the GFF, symbolic of their International Relations Strategy, which continues to bode well for the reputation of the Federation and Guyana as a football nation.
“These strategic partnerships are essential to our quest to acquire badly-needed football development resources along with technical and administration capacity. These buses were donated by UEFA and I am so humbled and grateful for this kind gesture. I would therefore like to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Aleksander Ceferin – President of UEFA, for his generous contribution to the Development of Guyana’s Football.
I wish to also thank Ms. Eva Pasquier and Mr. Howard McIntosh for working closely with me over the past year to consolidate the bilateral partnership between the GFF and UEFA. These buses will contribute to significant savings to the operations of the GFF Academy Training Centre (ATC) programme, which will allow us to fully implement the next phases of this groundbreaking National Youth Development Structure.
Greenwood spoke to the fact that the donation aligns to the national football philosophy: “The acquisition of the team buses is a landmark achievement for the GFF and is integral to the Academy Training Centre Programme. They will provide the logistical and transportation support for the Inter-Academy League and fixtures scheduled throughout 2020 and beyond. Vital quality control will be conducted across all the ATCs utilising this logistical support for our Coach Educators.”
Greenwood further noted that the GFF National Football Philosophy has a key pillar to ensure our player’s performance clock target of 10,000 hours of deliberate practice is attained to develop Guyanese elite performers.
“The team buses will ensure clear alignment between strategy and our reality as we are now able to ensure that support and transportation is provided to our players to attend national team training and weekend camps at the GFF National Training Centre.”
The GFF shared quotes from UEFA Head of International Relations, Eva Pasquier and One Concacaf and Caribbean Senior Project Manager, Howard McIntosh.
Eva Pasquier commented: “UEFA Assist programme is proud to support Guyana Football Federation in their continuous effort to develop football in the country. When we learned that there are young players walking for hours to play the game and then they walk back, the provision of the mini buses is just a perfect thing to do – bringing people and football together.”
Howard McIntosh stated: “Concacaf is proud to facilitate any collaborative efforts in the Region to assist in the development of the beautiful game. This gift will help the GFF to continue its many programmes which have yielded success for the GFF and Guyana.”