Dear Editor,
Another year for the Kashif & Shanghai football extravaganza has come and gone and from all indications it has been another smashing success.
While this competition has become a household name for Guyana and everyone looks forward to this end of year extravaganza, there are a number of issues with this competition that continue to occur with no obvious improvement.
The most striking of this is the venues for the matches and the activities of the patrons that attend.
K&S continues to host matches at the GFC ground in Georgetown. This ground is so dilapidated and seating facilities so poor that it boggles the mind how any fixture can be given to this venue.
I attended the match at this venue when Top XX played BV Triumph and Pele vs Victoria Kings. The entrance fee was $500 and I at least expected to find some form of seating accommodation. To my utter dismay there was no seating available since the (extremely) small pavilion and few metal chairs could have only accommodated probably 200 persons at most, and this was already filled to overflowing.
I was then left to fend for a position in the darker recesses of the venue. When I finally found a small space from where I had to crane my neck to get a glimpse of the action I wondered if I had somehow entered a gangster movie being filmed in some ghetto area. Here I was totally engulfed in acrid smoke from numerous persons smoking marijuana, out in the open, with total abandon.
There were men, women and children all smoking ‘a joint’ with little care about the other patrons or even having a remote fear of being caught in this supposedly illegal activity. Then imagine my utter surprise when I saw a person running up and down the boundaries selling what appeared to be marijuana leaves. This guy was in total demand as he was seen running around and stripping off parts of the leaf and tossing it into the crowd. No one seemed willing or even cared to stop this individual. Actually, he seemed to be the most popular person around as everyone knew him by his name.
Marijuana smoking is synonymous with football in Guyana. It seems to be a culture that has developed because most of the patrons come from the ‘ghetto’ areas. Because of this association numerous people associate football matches with illegal activities such as ganja smoking and petty robbery. As such the patronage of football in Guyana seems to come from a specific group of people.
Football worldwide is the most popular sport and it is the same for Guyana. Yet if you look at a footballing crowd in Georgetown it would be almost totally bereft of the middle class society simply because of the association of football with criminal activities.
Could K&S imagine just how much more profitable their competition would be if they were able to eradicate such an image from football? Then a true cross section of football lovers would be able to go and witness the local competitions.
It seems the GFF, GFL, K&S and all the other administrative organisations of football in Guyana just turn a blind eye to this wanton (ab)use of marijuana at football matches. None of these organisations can state that they aren’t aware of the illegal activity. It occurs at every football event, out in the open for all to see. The big question then is why is nothing being done to curb this illegal activity? Do these organisations gain from condoning such practices?
When I attended those matches at GFC there was not a single police presence. If indeed there was, then he had to be hidden somewhere where his presence was useless.
I saw Mr. Aubrey “Shanghai” Major come to the southern area of the ground to remove some persons who had encroached on to the playing field. He must have seen the amount of persons that were smoking marijuana.
Mr Odinga Lumumba, the Minister of Empowerment, and a very influential football administrator, publicly stated that he was going to improve football in Guyana. Yet nothing is being done to improve the public image of football in Guyana. Most of the facilities are still very dilapidated and of course the marijuana smoking goes unchecked.
Since none of the football administrators seems willing to tackle this obvious problem then the onus is on the Minister of Sport and the government to take drastic action to eliminate this negative image that football presently possesses.
If you witness football matches on television you would notice a large security presence to ensure the safety of the players and patrons. In Guyana the patrons and the players are left to fend for themselves in a dangerous looking environment that leaves you with one eye on the game and the other over your shoulder to ensure that nothing criminal happens to you.
Messrs. Lumumba and Klass, you should be the first to realise that the only way your grandiose plans for football development can be realised is if you increase revenues. For this to occur you have to eradicate the negative image that our football presently possesses.
Messrs. Muhammed and Major, as businessmen you should realise that the public image of football needs to be improved so that you can increase your earnings.
As you plan for K&S 2007, please make a concerted effort to improve the seating faclities at the venues and more importantly try to improve the image of football. That should be your public contribution to the game of football that has made you into a household entity. If nothing is done by the administrators, then it is the government’s turn to try and solve the problem.
I look forward to an improved public image of football in Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
M. Emile
