GFF Elite League prize money is “unfair” to clubs and players

Jun 19, 2025 Sports

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Hear Me Out…

Rawle Toney

By Rawle Toney

Kaieteur Sports –Imagine playing eight grueling months of football in Guyana’s top-tier league, and the grand prize for being crowned national champions is a mere $2M (Guyana Dollars / USD 10,000).

Now picture a futsal tournament that lasts just a few weeks, as in the case of the Kashif and Shanghai “June Madness”, where the winning team walks away with the same $2M.

Does that make sense to you? It sounds almost criminal, doesn’t it?

Welcome to the current state of the Guyana Football Federation’s Elite League, a painful reflection of how poorly football is being administered in our country.

There was a time when the Elite League offered real value, when clubs had a legitimate chance to earn as much as $10M in prize money, and no less than $4M just for topping the table.

Now? That structure has vanished into the abyss of nostalgia.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane back to 2015/2016, when the Elite League was launched under the GFF’s Normalisation Committee, chaired by businessman Clinton Urling. It was the first real attempt to run the sport professionally, in keeping with global football standards.

Back then, the Elite League was designed with structure, competition, and incentives. Eight clubs battled in a home-and-away format, totaling 14 matches per round.

The first round, branded “League Genesis,” saw the top four teams face off in a knockout format; 1st vs 4th, and 2nd vs 3rd. The winners met in the final to decide the round champion.

The League Genesis champion earned $4M. Second place received $2M, third took home $1M, and fourth collected $500,000. To reward consistent performance, the team topping the table at the end of regular season action also walked away with an additional $1M.

Then came the “League Finale”, an identical format with the same rewards. Altogether, the total prize pool stood at $15M, with a single team capable of bagging up to $10M if they dominated both rounds.

To cap it all off, the winners of Genesis and Finale faced off in a one-off championship match for national bragging rights. In the inaugural season, that honour went to Slingerz Football Club.

Back then, the league enjoyed sponsorship from reputable companies like Ansa McAl, under STAG Beer, Courts Guyana, and E-Networks (now ENet). Ironically, the current GFF president, Wayne Forde, was at the time serving as president of Fruta Conquerors FC.

Now fast-forward to the present.

The league has expanded to 10 teams, but the prize money has drastically dwindled, despite a more robust economy and an influx of corporate brands operating in Guyana.

Meanwhile, club expenses have skyrocketed. On average, a club spends upwards of $2M monthly to remain competitive in the Elite League. For top-tier clubs like Slingerz FC, Western Tigers, Guyana Police Force FC, and the Guyana Defence Force FC, that figure is even higher.

The funny part is, the Elite League provides virtually zero opportunities for clubs to generate revenue.

The GFF’s much-criticized 60-40 revenue-sharing model for home games is a joke. Most clubs have simply abandoned the idea of hosting, opting to play at the GFF’s National Training Centre at Providence, where matchday atmosphere is non-existent, and lousy seating arrangements for spectators.

But I’ll save that topic for another “Hear Me Out” column.

The bottom line is, football in Guyana needs serious reform.

Ask yourself why are most major companies unwilling to invest in the Elite League? Why are clubs pouring hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, into an 18-match season stretched over eight months, for a payout that barely covers one month’s expenses?

This isn’t sustainable. It’s not even football, its financial suicide dressed up as development.

And let’s not even get started on the state of association football. Outside of Region Nine, nearly every regional football association is either inactive or in disarray.

Some are victims of poor support, while others, like Linden, don’t even have a venue to host matches. But that, too, is a story for another day.

For now, the “Beautiful Game” in Guyana is limping, not because of lack of talent, but because of broken systems. And until those systems are fixed, we’re just playing for pride, and pocket change.

Pic – Rawle Toney

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Ansa McAl, Clinton Urling, GFF Elite League, Kashif and Shanghai, Rawle Toney

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