Letter to the Sports Editor - Stakeholders have a glorious opportunity to halt football calamity

Letter to the Sports Editor – Stakeholders have a glorious opportunity to halt football calamity

Nov 08, 2023 Letters, Sports

Dear Sports Editor,

Stakeholders concerned with the state of football in this country have a glorious opportunity to halt the neglect the sport has been experiencing over the past decade.

This chance will come in just over one month (December 9, 2023) to be exact, when the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) stages its Electoral Congress, at the National Training Centre, Providence.

The sport has suffered from governance incompetence which ultimately resulted in little real activity on the field, thus causing a standstill of development at the local level and by extension, affecting the image of the game as well.

It seems hard to believe that a sport like football, which is extremely popular in most countries on the planet, is undergoing such calamity in a land that loves it so much.

Even though governance of the sport here is replete with many instances of poor administration, the financial largesse doled out by FIFA for almost every area of development should have provided the fillip for far more progress than we are witnessing right now.

Instead, what we have seen is irrefutable evidence of how badly the game has suffered administratively and this has caused the regression of the beautiful game.

The electorate will in a month have an opportunity to reverse the current comatose state the sport finds itself in presently and inject life into it.

The recent flurry of activities heading into election season appears to be more deceptive than genuine and this performance could prove to be a little too late to adjust the thinking of stakeholders eligible to vote.

The current administration acts as though they are the stars of the sport and this bearing is being led by the current President Wayne Forde, who for whatever reason, seems to believe that being consistently in the news will somehow translate to the development of the sport.

He makes the news more often than any player on the national roster.

Just to emphasize the importance of the players and the direction the sport has taken, the English Premier League administration had reason to caution referees about dishing out yellow and red cards willy-nilly, informing the officials that the fans are not turning up to see them, but rather the players.

They (EPL) valued the importance of the fans and players towards the viability of the League, they knew that if teams’ best players were going to be sent off for minor infringements, it could then trigger negative consequences for every related component of the League.

This would mean their finances, clubs, communities and businesses could be affected by such actions, so discussions were held, and the concerns amicably resolved.

Forde operates like a one-man army, seemingly unanswerable to anyone and has even been accused of subtle acts of pressure.

The fact that hardly any competitions are being played in the various associations is enough evidence to confirm the absence of true development at the grassroots level.

Just to mention, the current Elite League and all the other competitions are farcical, no standard on the field, while the organizational level leaves much to be desired.

These two vital ingredients are the reasons why the fans have been largely absent from venues.

The struggle for corporate and governmental support will remain elusive or at best inadequate if the status quo remains the same.

Should this scenario persist then the real losers will continue to be the players and parents, who sacrifice so much to give their kids another option in life.

There is no doubt under Forde’s stewardship, the sport’s image has been severely tarnished, so it is the responsibility of genuine stakeholders, interested in the further development of the sport and restoration of its fortunes to be eagerly anticipating the upcoming Congress.

That day they will get the opportunity to right the wrong being inflicted on the game by a callous and self-serving current executive.

December 9 is D-day for football in Guyana.

Concerned Football fan

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Electoral Congress, Guyana Football Federation (GFF), National Training Centre, Providence, stakeholders

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