The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) the world governing body for football
has ordered the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) to repay their neighbours the Suriname Football Association (SFA) the sum of US$8,000 (G$1.6m) for expenses incurred during the return fixture of their 2010 World Cup qualifying tournament in June.
According to source, the matter was being broadcast on the sports news in neighbouring Suriname during the course of the day.
Contacted for a comment GFF General Secretary, Noel Adonis, stated that he had no knowledge of FIFA’s decision while GFF president Colin Klass could not be reached for a comment on the issue.
The SFA is claiming that they had incurred the expenses following inadequate accommodation and meals provided by the GFF for the visit of their national soccer team to Guyana for the return game of the World Cup qualifiers.
And, Stabroek Sports was reliably informed that a vice president from the SFA will be arriving in the country sometime today to meet with the GFF to discuss payment of the sum.
It was previously reported when the Suriname team returned to Guyana for the Digicel Caribbean Championships (DCC) in early August, that the Suriname national team that came for the World Cup match had been provided accommodation at the Woodbine International Hotel and had found the place to have inadequate standards.
They had sought and received meals from the Hotel Tower and had used that hotel’s swimming pool facilities (which they paid for as that was not provided by their original place of accommodation) bringing about FIFA’s decision to have the GFF re-imburse the SFA.
Back in August, Suriname’s First Secretary at the embassy here, Charlo Doedel had told Stabroek Sport in an invited comment on the team’s accommodation for the DCC, ”When Suriname visited Guyana for their return leg of the 2010 World Cup qualifier in June, the treatment received in terms of accommodation left much to be desired. . . this was second time around for the Surinamese.
“When we hosted Guyana in June for the first leg of our World Cup qualifying encounter, we ensured that the accommodation they received was of a high standard, thus we were anticipating the same on our visit here for the return encounter but sad to say, such was not,” stated Doedel.
At the time of that comment, Doedel was venting his frustration at not being able to make contact with any high ranking official from the GFF regarding the Suriname team’s accommodation for the DCC, but with tournament sponsors stepping in, they were accommodated at the Ocean View International Hotel.
And the entire Surinamese delegation, including Doedel, indicated to Stabroek Sport that they were comfortable with the provisions made available to the team at the Ocean View International Hotel
