President of the Georgetown Football Association, Troy Mendonca said yesterday the time was ripe for football to have its own ground.
“Football has been suffering and it is time that we control or own our own ground,” the GFA president said.
Mendonca made the statement against the background of the refusal of the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) to grant the use of the world-famous Bourda facility for the staging of the GFA’s Cellink Plus Premier League final.
“The executives of the Georegetown Football Association regrettably would like to inform the general public, teams and officials that the management of GCC has decided against renting us their facility and as such the games scheduled for the GCC will now be played at the GFC ground, a release from the GFA” stated yesterday.
The tournament was set to conclude today at the GCC ground with a double-header involving defending champions and points leaders Alpha United (on 25 points) against Western Tigers in the feature clash from 8pm and second placed Pele (also on 25 points) against Fruta Conquerors in the opening game.
Mendonca said he learnt yesterday from the GCC authorities that they had rescinded their earlier decision because of yesterday’s rainfall and also took a decision to refund the GFA a cheque for $156,000.
Mendonca said the GFA had paid by way of cheque the sum of $156,000 of which $116,000 was for the rental of the facility and the remaining $40,000 was to be lodged as a cautionary deposit.
“We’re not really happy about it,” Mendonca said of the matter questioning whether it was not possible for the GCC authorities to cover the pitch.
The GFA release said the decision to use the GCC ground was in an effort to provide better accommodation for the spectators, players, officials and sponsors adding that the GFA had spent over $500,000 in preparing and promoting the games.
The release stated that it would appear that the executives of the GCC were discriminating against football since the GFA had witnessed rain pouring before cricket matches and extensive mopping up operations was done and the match allowed to play compared to this situation where there were scattered showers a day before the actual football match with the Sun coming out later in the day.
The GFA said they will re-energise their efforts to develop the Tucville Community Centre ground and other football playing fields and was appealing to companies and the general public for support.
Meanwhile Mendonca said the GFA plans to have police protection for today’s matches which begin from 3pm with an U-13game between Santos and Beacons.
