Football News

 

MEDIA RELEASE

30^th May, 2016; Georgetown: The President of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), on Monday, 30^th May, 2016, held a press conference to brief the media of the outcomes of the GFF Ordinary Congress held on Saturday, 28^th May, 2016 at Herdsmanston Lodge, Queenstown. Other pending issues were also discussed.

This press conference was held on Monday, 30^th May, 2016, 11:00hrs, in the Boardroom of the GFF Secretariat.

Following is a summary of the issues addressed:

1. GFF’S ORDINARY CONGRESS

• It was an “exceptionally good” Congress. Success of the Congress is credited exclusively to the 22-Member Associations. The conduct of the Congress was very professional; engaging, open and honest communication was had
• The Executive Body is very pleased with the outcome of the Congress
• “It important to make mention that I’m convinced at this point that we have a unified football fraternity. In all of my engagements with the media and the public in general over the past six months, I have maintained one common theme and that is, the football fraternity appears to want to demonstrate that to Guyana, to the business community and wider society that we have had enough of the turmoil, we have had enough of in-fighting and we’re prepared to go in a different direction. I’m very optimistic of the future” – Wayne Forde
• Address to the Congress: please see attached

 

• Key Decisions Taken:

1. Amendment of the Electoral Code

An amendment was made to the electoral code to allow a member of the Council to be replaced, in the event of a withdrawal (providing its not more than 50%), without an election. This amendment will require the Council to present the position/person to the Congress for ratification.

1. Amendment to the Council’s Expense and compensation provision

This amendment will seek greater oversight on any issue relative to expense and compensation that is due to the Council in the execution of their functions. This will fall under the Audit and Compliance Committee; this committee will set the oversight mechanism for compliance. The limit as submitted by the named committee will be submitted to the Congress for approval.  The previous constitution had this issue very vaguely worded and was subject to the possibility of abuse.

• Vacant Positions on the Key Judicial Committees Ratified

The vacant positions were ratified. Proposed members to these independent bodies were recommended to and approved by the Congress – Ethics, Disciplinary and Appeals Committees. These are now all fully-constituted

1. Approval of the 2016-2017 Budget / Presentation of the New FAP Support

The annual FAP has been increased from $USD250, 000 to $USD1.2m with the possibility of earning another $USD250, 000. This is part of the promise made by current FIFA President Giovanni Infantino during his election campaign. There will more oversight and scrutiny to ensure accountability. Capacity building will be afforded to GFF Member Associations to facilitate compliance to the accountability systems to be established.

1. Review of Contracts of Member Associations

All members engaging the corporate world for sponsorship and other engagements will have to submit draft contracts to the GFF for review prior to final sign-off in order to ensure that the said contracts protect the interests of football and speak to the development agenda of the game.

1. Financial Assistance to members to be referred to the Finance Committee

The financial assistance offered by the Federation to its 22 Members will be submitted to the Finance Committee for review, recommended to the Council and later to be endorsed by the Congress.  The GFF funds electricity and rent to the Member Associations but the Council feels more can be done in this regard.

 

2. CFU MEN’S CARIBBEAN CHAMPIONSHIP

• The Golden Jaguars are in Curacao; sent earlier to enable them to train on and acclimatize to the artificial turf. We are optimistic of the game and think the team will be victorious

 

3. SUSPENSION OF GREGORY RICHARDSON

The President again refuted the news story carried by News Room as completely inaccurate. “The incident which occurred at Leonora featuring the game (Pele Football Club vs Alpha United) had a measure of threat and violence to the officials of the game. The Council, when they got the facts and the report from the Match Commissioner, felt that for something that serious, we cannot allow a player to go on and represent the country when there are issues of threat to the safety of an official on the field. The only time that person can go on to participate in any football activity is after they are cleared by the Disciplinary Committee. Mr. Richardson and the other members of his team that were mentioned in the Match Commissioner’s Report have all been referred to the Disciplinary Committee. The only time that they will play any role on the field locally or internationally is after the Disciplinary Committee would have cleared them and discharged their own disciplinary action against them. So CFU has many weeks ahead of it; if Mr. Richardson is successful in his defense when he goes before the Disciplinary Committee and the National Team Management feels that he should be called up for further engagement, then Mr. Richardson’s right will be protected to represent Guyana on the field of play. So the decisions we take at the Council are never personal; we have to protect the image of the game and we understand that some of these players have a very strong and passionate following. We have to look at the image of football, both locally and internationally, we simply cannot have a situation where a referee is threatened to the extent that security needed to take the field to restrain players and, within a matter of days, allow that player to be a part of the national setup. That will be sending the wrong message to other players.  We will not, at any time, tolerate that; to the extent that we can act as an Council, we will, and what we have done is the limit of our action. We simply say, in our correspondence to the players and the club, that until they go before a Disciplinary Committee, they cannot be involved in any football.”

 

4. CALL FOR CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP

• Forde made an appeal for corporate sponsors to partner with the GFF to support the Golden Jaguars in the CFU Caribbean Men’s Championship. He underscored the value of this sponsorship. “We went through the CFU tournament (Round 1) finishing as a best team within our group. We played that entire (Round) without conceding a single goal. We went three consecutive international engagements with victories so the Guyana Golden Jaguars (are) doing very well.”
• He added, “I’m very optimistic about our chances of going far in this tournament and even coming away with the championship but we simply need some timely support to make this happen. Every engagement that requires travel sets the Guyana Football Federation back close to $G 3.5m, that’s really challenging for us. Yes, a lot of that will change over the next couple of months because of the promise that has been delivered on by President Infantino but as it is, we are challenged financially. We do not want a situation to arise where we cannot go any further because we simply cannot afford it.”

 

5. UPDATE: GFF-NAMILCO THUNDERBOLT FLOUR POWER UNDER-17 TOURNAMENT

• GFF-NAMILCO Thunderbolt Flour Power Under-17 Tournament will kick off on the weekend of June 4, 2016
• Total investment will be $ G30M dollars over a five-year period for youth football development. Gratitude was extended to the National Milling Company of Guyana (NAMILCO)

 

 6. NATIONAL SQUAD CHANGES UPDATE

• Richie Richards (Alpha United FC) has been called to the squad as a second Goal Keeper and Mr. Anthony Abrams has been called to replace Christopher Nurse who has indicated his unavailability.
• Samuel Cox has been appointed Team Captain for the two upcoming matches – Curacao and USVI

May 31, 2016