Dear Editor,
An article in the sports section of your newspaper of August 28 is captioned ‘His-toric National Football Lea-gue to be launched on Friday.’ In this article the President of the GFF was reported as stating that teams were drawn from the sub-associations around the country.
It is most unfortunate that no team from the Rupununi was selected to this national league. This is even though the local arm of the GFF, the Rupununi Football Associa-tion (RFA), undertook a vigorous regularization of football clubs in the Rupununi so as to facilitate affiliation to the GFF. The clubs were duly informed of the National Football League and were also promised that the GFF would have made accommodation for the participation of a team from the Rupununi, similar to what has been done with Bartica.
The RFA even went as far as to identify a squad of players to commence training for the national league. For the past few weeks there were rumblings that the GFF had ditched the Rupununi team from the national league. But it was felt that the GFF could not have been so callous to this sub-association after they had promised the team a spot in the league.
Unfortunately the release in your newspapers has confirmed the dreaded inevitable – that once again, as so many times before, Rupununi football was not deemed important enough to be a part of a national system.
The big question to Mr Klass is how can there be a national league but yet no representation from the Rupu-nuni Sub-Association? If he knew all along that there was no spot for a Rupununi team, then why did his federation mislead clubs from the Rupununi into assuming that they were going to be a part of the national league?
As Mr Klass seemed at pains to explain, criteria for exclusion from the national league included “geographical location of the sub associations” and because “we don’t feel that they are at the level right now.”
So, Mr Klass must have known from the inception that the Rupununi was a difficult geographical location as well as possibly not of the “right level.” So why did he still go ahead and give the assurance that a team from the Rupununi would have been considered?
The Rupununi has, for some time now, been participating in the annual K&S tournament. They have played against some of the top clubs in the country, yet they have not once been disgraced or humiliated. Yes, they may never have won the competition (are there any teams from outside the Georgetown and Linden sub-associations which have won the competition?) but they have always been extremely competitive and disciplined, something that is not always associated with some of the city clubs. They have won the hearts of the football public with their displays and many were heard remarking that if these players were given further exposure they would give any coastland club a run for their money. One had thought that the national league would have offered that requisite exposure.
Mr Klass would do well and observe some decisions made by UEFA in the interest of the development of the game. The Champions League, the most popular and richest of all football leagues, was recently revamped to cater for smaller and poorer clubs. This was aimed at giving the smaller clubs the necessary exposure at the highest level. Mr Michel Platini, President of UEFA, felt that this was the only way that football could have continued developing at the grassroots.
A similar situation could have occurred with this national league. So while Mr Klass is on the rooftop shouting the benefits of the national league, the smaller members of GFF sit and wonder when, if ever, they will be considered an equal with the city backed and influenced clubs.
For the footballers of the Rupununi, their exclusion from the national league feels like a stab in the back from the GFF. One only hopes that the GFF has the moral standing to come out and state clearly why they reneged on their assurance they would include the Rupununi in this inaugural national league.
In the meantime, best of luck is wished to those ‘fortunate’ sub-associations who met the criteria of the GFF, or more to the point, were on the coastland and therefore cheaper to include in the national league.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
