THE Guyana Football Federation (GFF) has signed a lucrative deal with global sportswear dealers Admiral, according to Chairman of the Normalisation Committee Clinton Urling.
Urling, speaking to Chronicle Sport yesterday after the GFF had signed their 30-year lease with the Eccles/Ramsberg Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) at the Providence Community Centre ground, did not state the extent of the deal, only saying it’s “very handsome”.
“They will outfit all teams of the GFF, including when we start our elite league which is scheduled to come on stream in August and also the GFF will be the official authorised distributor of all Admiral Products in Guyana,” Urling said.
The GFF Normalisation Committee Chairman said that the GFF “from a revenue-earning standpoint can now open stores and sell. That partnership has already happened and we’ve already signed a deal. You’ll hear more about it maybe next week and I think next month when the World Cup qualifiers start we’ll give further details”.
In 2011, then-president Colin Klass inked a four-year deal with Plus One Fashion (+One) of the USA valued at approximately US$350 000 annually where the company equips its national players at all levels.
It was not made known what happened to the deal with Plus One and the finances from it, but last year, the GFF, this time under president Christopher Matthias signed a four-year deal with Forward Sports International Incorporated.
Again, nothing was known of the deal thereafter since Matthias was ousted by FIFA soon after, bringing in Guyana’s first Normalisation Committee.
Urling, asked by Chronicle Sport, to outline the financial aspect of the deal, only noted “It’s no cost to us, but it’s a very handsome deal for the GFF.
The only obligation is that we use their names and there are some minimum amounts of supplies we need to buy which, from looking at our national teams alone, we’ve reached that minimum.”
Admiral Sportswear is said to be the world’s second largest distributor of football apparel behind Adidas with several countries turning to the English-based brand as a supplier.
Meanwhile Urling, in letting the ‘cat out the bag’, said that Guyana will be part of the women’s Olympic qualifiers later in the year and said that “Claude (Bolton) will tell you guys more about that but we will be sending the best possible team to the qualifiers”.
“Also, we’re negotiating to hold another big tournament in this country, probably in June, but I’m not going to make big announcement on that until we seal the deal with CFU and CONCACAF but from the football standpoint, lots of things happened where some major sponsors will be coming back on board as well,” Urling said.
By Rawle Toney
Source: http://guyanachronicle.com/gff-inks-kit-deal-with-admiral-sportswear/