– Kashif and Shanghai says `not our tournament’
Aubrey ‘Shanghai’ Major, Co-Director of the Kashif and Shanghai Organization is distancing his group from the Inter-Pub Futsal tournament which concluded on Tuesday evening at the National Gymnasium with five persons being injured following a disagreement over a bet.
The fifth English/Kashif and Shanghai Futsal tournament is currently in progress at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall and yesterday Major said that following the incident where some persons were shot, persons have been contacting them to find out what went on and he wanted the public to know that his organization was in no way involved.
“First of all, we want people to know that the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation is no way whatsoever involved with the tournament at the Gymnasium.
“We have nothing at all to do with it. First of all, people know that with us, we would have maximum security and nothing like this has ever happened at any of our events, ever, you can check,” Major boasted.
He said that the incident could bring bad imagine on Futsal, especially since they were in the middle of their tournament.
“Well you know we do things differently at our tournament and we want people to know that they can come out still because it is different at our end you know,” Major added.
Major is wearing two caps in this case as he is also the organizing secretary of the Guyana Football Federation whose General Secretary Noel Adonis told Stabroek Sport in an invited comment that the Inter-Pub tournament had not received the blessings of the GFF.
“First of all, the federation did not sanction the tournament nor did the referees council. Futsal, as a matter of fact, is not played on concrete, it is played on wood, concrete is too hard for them (players) so they play on wood, that’s why you see we play at the Sports Hall, ” said Major.
Adonis on the other hand, believes that the situation has cast a black shadow of the sport.
“You know I think people will look at it and kind of put things in its own way but it’s our job of the GFF now to let people know that when you have football and so on, you have to go through the right channels, you know, make sure you have security and so on.
“It’s something that people would regret happening yes, but I think people can now take a page from it and make sure they do the right thing. If this was to be sanctioned by the GFF, it would have had security.”
He added:” But if you look at what’s happening around the world, these things are becoming more and more prevalent. So it’s very important for the organisers of these events to seek proper permission and have proper security for people.”
Adonis said that the GFF was approached by the promoters and when confronted with the steep requirements requested by the federation they never returned.
“Look, the GFF is here to administer the sport, but if someone wants to have a tournament without our sanctioning, well then the players and everyone who are involved will be doing so at their own risk. If something is to happen, they can’t come to the GFF, so it was just sad you know,” Adonis declared.
The National Gymnasium comes under the jurisdiction of the National Sports Commission (NSC) and when contacted for a comment Director of Sport Neil Kumar said that the incident happened outside of the premises and as such, there was very little that he could say.