By Rawle Toney
Guyana’s Golden Jaguars are in an all too familiar position once again.
They Golden Jaguars are not being kicked off football fields but are encamped in Trinidad and Tobago ahead of their second round Digicel Caribbean Championships (DCC) and are without cash.
According to Guyana’s Technical Director, Trinidadian Jamaal Shabazz, the staging of a camp in Trinidad and Tobago is a huge cost to the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and a lot of things are being done on credit.
“I want to urge the Government and corporate Guyana to become a stake holder in this project,” Shabazz told Stabroek Sport yesterday.
“When Guyana wins every one beats their chest and when Guyana loses, every one feels dejected and disappointed. Therefore this is not about who likes Mr. Colin Klass.”
Klass, who has been president of the GFF for the past 20 plus years, has come in for strong criticism from the public and from some sections of the business community for not being able to give a proper account of the US$250,000 subvention the GFF receives annually from its parent body FIFA.
“The Guyana Football Federation’s constitution provides for office bearers to elect and eject officials, so too does the constitution of Guyana.
“Therefore if football chooses to keep Mr. Klass at its helm, the Guyana National Football team should not be punished as a result,” he opined.
The GFF in recent times has being finding it difficult to acquire funding to properly prepare the national team and has often been calling on corporate Guyana for support.
Meanwhile it was disclosed that the GFF was still working on getting five overseas-based players, John Rodriguez, Shawn Beveney, Howard and Jake Newton and Christopher Nurse in from England.
The GFF has selected six local players who will join the encampment in the twin island republic.
The selected players are Dwight Peters, Anthony ‘Awo’ Abrams, Devon Millington, Shawn Bishop, Kester and Dwayne Jacobs.
The technical staff comprising coach Wayne “Wiggy” Dover, Frank Paris and Kavin Pearce are already in the island to put systems in place ahead of their encampment tomorrow.
Shabazz informed this newspaper that players who are playing semi-professional football in the twin-island republic will join the squad from tomorrow after playing their final league game with their respective clubs this evening.
Guyana are in group H with hosts Trinidad and Tobago, St Kitts and Antigua and will begin their quest on November 5 at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium again St Kitts and Nevis.
This year’s DCC finals will be played in Jamaica from December 3-12 with the top four teams once again qualifying for the CONCACAF Gold Cup championships.
