The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) World Cup Committee yesterday called for the support of Guyanese everywhere as they attempt to have the national team realize the dream of reaching the 2010 World Cup final.
The GFF World Cup Committee (GFF-WCC) yesterday outlined a list of goals and objectives totalling roughly three and a half million US dollars to ensure that the Golden Jaguars get to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
The 22-member committee has already signed a three-year partnership agreement with Digicel, and hope it to embark on many fund-raising ventures and other activities to finance the national team’s endeavours.
The GFF-WCC intends to advertise the skills and abilities of the players while marketing memorabilia that may help in promoting the Golden Jaguars team.
Chief Executive Officer of the committee, US-based Colin Baker, said that the mission of the World Cup committee was to bring together people and resources to ensure that there was a co-ordinated and orchestrated effort for the Guyana senior national football team to qualify for the final of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which he said was certainly not an easy task.
Baker’s involvement stems from his responsibility as the president of the Guyana Sports Development Foundation which focuses on football among other sports.
Baker said that there were many aspects of the game that needed to be focused on in order for the team to succeed.
“We need to have the team in a situation where all they need to be focused on is their training, preparation and execution come game day,” he said.
“Everything needs to be taken away from them so that they can be in an environment to be of their full potential and that is the main reason why the committee has been established.” Baker said.
The GFF-WCC plans to emulate the strategy of successful regional teams such as the 1998 Jamaican Reggae Boyz and the 2006 Trinidad Soca Warriors in recruiting help from overseas. Apart from many of the committee members being overseas-based Guyanese, the committee also hopes to identify overseas players who have Guyanese lineage to tryout for the team.
The budget proposed by the GFF-WCC has been constructed to offset the cost of the team’s preparation, travel expenses as well as pay the technical support staff and other miscellaneous expenses.
Technical Director of GFF, Jamaal Shabazz, said that he agreed with those who feel that Guyana is just a “baby” in World Cup football but added that with the right tools in hand, Guyana could certainly shock the masses and be a serious contender in 2010.
“If this baby while still in the cradle can reach to fifth place in Caribbean football and speak to the world without any resources, what will happen when this baby grows up with the nurturing from all Guyanese here along with overseas Guyanese throughout the Caribbean, in North America and the United States?” he asked.
He also said that at this crucial time when the national team needed much of its preparation overseas, they were in desperate need of financial support from Guyanese everywhere.
