Guyana Football Federation (GFF) President Colin Klass is now caught firmly between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
Amidst reports – confirmed by this paper beyond reasonable doubt – that the Golden Jaguars team desperately wants to see the back of the man who has run the GFF for two decades, the suave accountant is denying any knowledge of the acrimonious engagement between himself and the entire Golden Jaguars team at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Port-of-Spain early Monday morning.
This is not the first time that demands for Klass’s exit as the local boss of football have surfaced. The truth of the matter is that he has become deeply unpopular with sections of the local football fraternity and individuals within that fraternity.
This, however, is the first time that Klass is facing what is a full-scale mutiny by the entire senior national football team which wants him to demit office forthwith.
And, it would appear, with good reason too.
Fingers have continually been pointed at the GFF boss in matters pertaining to a succession of spectacular failures on the part of the GFF including failure to provide facilities for training prior to important international games; failure to meet federation financial obligations to players and creditors; failure to make proper arrangements for foreign-based players to travel to Guyana for matches and failure to provide adequate accommodation for players in Guyana.
To make matters worse, Mr. Klass has now become legendary for his denials of incidents even in the face of what often appears to be compelling evidence to the contrary.
The same, it seems, is the case in this instance.
This newspaper cannot confirm a report in another section of the media that members of the Golden Jaguars team came perilously close to assaulting the GFF president during the tense showdown at Port-of-Spain’s Crown Plaza Hotel at some ungodly hour Monday morning.
From all reports, however, an exchange did take place and it was by no means a polite discourse in the tea-party tradition.
What we have been told is that except he is entirely devoid of comprehension Klass would have been left in no doubt that the players will settle for no less than his immediate removal as GFF boss.
If precedent is anything to go by Mr. Klass – as he has done in the past – may well “hunker down” and “dig in” and wait for this latest crisis to pass.
He is, after all, protected by a seemingly loyal General Council and the various Sub Associations that ensure his retention in office for reasons known only to them and Klass while appearing oblivious to the concerns of the very players they were elected to represent.
On the other hand this newspaper understands that the Golden Jaguars are so disenchanted with Klass’s leadership that they are ‘up for a fight.’
Indeed, we learnt that most of the players who are currently plying their trade with clubs in Trinidad and Tobago are preparing to ask their colleagues in Guyana not to participate in any competitive games unless and until Klass steps down.
And while it is not for this newspaper to determine whether Klass stays or goes, it has to be said that in circumstances where the players representing the national team have issued a clear vote of no confidence in him, Mr. Klass, if only out of a sense of duty to football, must surely be compelled to consider whether his continued tenure as GFF president will not continue to do local football irreparable damage.
And while we have heard it said – and we agree – that there are procedures governing the administration of local football, we wish to make it clear that such rules and procedures which serve only to stifle the legitimate will of the players on the national team and the local football fraternity as a whole, could only facilitate a creeping dictatorship that will confine real decision-making only to those who rule.
On no account should that be allowed to happen.
