The final of the Namilco Football tournament scheduled for the National Stadium at Providence failed to come off yesterday following a decision by the Guyana Football Referees Council (GFRC) not to show up.
President of Fruta Conquerors, Marlan Cole, told Stabroek Sport that he was informed at around 3pm yesterday by the GFRC that they would be unable to officiate in the event.
Cole said he was not clear why the GFRC had made that decision after they had already been paid in full for their services.
The Namilco-sponsored tournament organized by Fruta Conquerors, was plunged into darkness and subsequent chaos by a power outage which prevented Friday’s semi-final between Sunburst Camptown and Alpha United from being completed.
At that time, with approximately 17 minutes remaining in the game Alpha United led 2-1 after two stoppages which Cole informed resulted from a blown transformer.
The organizers ordered the game to be replayed on Saturday to facilitate yesterday’s scheduled final at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence.
Cole said both teams had agreed to the rescheduled date and time of 6pm but Alpha United subsequently failed to show up on Saturday forcing the organizers to give Sunburst Camptown a walkover.
Alpha United subsequently protested that decision in a letter to the Guyana Football Federation (GFF).
President of Alpha United, Odinga Lumumba, told this newspaper from Jamaica yesterday that he was told by the organizers that his team was scheduled to replay the semi-final encounter on Saturday with the final billed for yesterday at Providence.
Lumumba said he pointed out that if his team had won the replayed semi-final against Camptown on Saturday it would have meant that they would have played “three back-to-back games,” which he added, was against FIFA regulations.
He blamed the organizers for not checking with the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) electricity company to ascertain whether power would have been restored before calling off the game and said the organizers erred in not giving his team adequate time to prepare for the scheduled replayed fixture. Lumumba, who also urged the GFF to review Friday night’s decision, told this newspaper that he was in receipt of correspondence from president of the GFF Colin Klass, which supported his club’s contention that a minimum of 24 hours rest/recovery per match was a must for all tournaments. Cole said he was told by the match officials that based on FIFA rules the match must be replayed and not restarted at the point where it was stopped. He said that the only reason why the match was rescheduled to Saturday was in order for the organizers to be able to play the final yesterday because of the unavailability of the National Stadium for the rest of the year since it has been booked out for various activities including the Kashif and Shanghai final on New Year’s Day.
In the other semi-final match which was played on Saturday, BK International Western Tigers reached the final by conquering Fruta Conquerors 1 – 0.
Despite playing on home ground, Conquerors bowed out to the much more focussed Tigers who played composed football even without persistent striker Devon Millington.
The first half of the match saw both sides attacking valiantly but it was FC who had the easiest of chances to score but Manessah Primo could count himself a bit unlucky when his attempted shot sailed over the cross bar with Western Tigers custodian Peter Miggins well and truly beaten.
Western had a not so similar opportunity at goal four minutes after Primo’s 13th minute mishap.
Conquerors’ Neville Stanton then muffed a penalty, denied by Miggins half way into the first half after Miggins had committed a foul on Theon Carr within the 18-yard box.
The first 45 minutes ended without anyone scoring and the second half was heading in the same direction before a sudden burst of successful dribbling by Nedd Fraser saw him run through Fruta’s defence.
Fraser, a 60th minute substitute, then beat FC’s goal-keeper Oswald Cornette in the 75th minute from no less than five yards outside the 18-yard box to record the winning goal.