Harold Taylor, FIFA Development Officer with responsibilities for the Caribbean says government should do a lot more for football in Guyana with respect to facilities.
Taylor made the statement at a press briefing yesterday following the conclusion of the three day Guyana Football federation (GFF) FIFA Com-Unity seminar at Cara Lodge on Quamina Street.
Trinidadian Taylor, said his country has five stadia which were the responsibility of the government and not the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation.
He also disclosed that the regional associations look after the grounds in the country while the savannah, which is used to stage multiple sports events, is the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture.
“The Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation don’t have their own ground,” Taylor said.
Taylor’s comments were supported by FIFA media instructor Les Dickens, who said the same situation existed in his country Ecuador.
Dickens, and three other FIFA officials in FIFA marketing instructor Alberto Almirall of Paraguay, Jorge Baptista of Portugal, FIFA media instructor and Hamish Miller of New Zealand, FIFA marketing instructor, along with Taylor and representatives from the GFF including president Colin Klass, Aubrey `Shanghai’ Major, George Rutherford and Frederick Granger, met with a wide cross section of the football fraternity in Guyana over the past three days to try and assess the football situation in the country.
Taylor said the group received information from the various participants which helped them to come up with conclusions which will be forwarded to FIFA.
He made it quite clear that it was not that FFA was telling Guyana how football must be run here.
“We came we listened, and we tried to help,” he said adding that the feed back from FIFA will be sent to the GFF.
“It will be up to the federation and the people of Guyana to implement the recommendations,” Taylor said.
Taylor noted that there had been a lot of improvement in Guyana’s football and said that they would try to help sustain that improvement.
He pointed out that there was a suggestion for clubs to have a national league but said such a suggestion should come from the clubs.
“The GFF should not force a national league on the clubs,” said Taylor.
Dickens said: “It has been a great three days,” adding that he found the locals to be a group of people who were very, very passionate about their football.
He described the recent progress of the national team as “tremendous shooting up the FIFA rankings,” and said Guyana has all the right ingredients at present while Miller, opined that the performance should encourage commercial partners to come on stream.
Goal project
Taylor also revealed that the Goal Project by which Guyana is to have its own football facility funded by FIFA was still on stream.
Taylor said Guyana needed to get a plot of land, which they eventually got from a donor. “All the requirements of the goal project have now been met,” he declared.
Taylor explained that the Goal Project took some time because certain conditions had to be met.
He said acquiring land for the project or a long term lease for 25 years was almost impossible to get from the government. Klass disclosed that funding for the project was still available but said that there were certain local procedures that had to be carried out.
He explained that a contractor will have to abide by the contract prepared by FIFA which was standard throughout the world.
All of the FIFA officials said they enjoyed their stay in Guyana with a few stating that they would surely like to visit Guyana again.
