The Guyana Police Force (GPF) is calling for regulations concerning the printing and sale of tickets to be put in place by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport for future Kashif and Shanghai football tournaments.
This follows a release by the Kashif and Shanghai organization on Thursday which claimed that they lost millions of dollars as a result of the decision by the police not to allow excess persons to enter the ground.
Yesterday, a release from the GPF stated that the decision taken to stop the sale of tickets and to prevent persons from entering the Providence National Stadium during the final of the 20th annual Kashif and Shanghai football tournament was taken out of concern for the safety of the public.
“The Guyana Police Force wishes to state from the onset that the situation that resulted at the stadium during the Kashif and Shanghai football tournament final on New Year’s Day was not as a result of any bad judgement/decision or security lapse on the part of the police,” a statement from the organization said yesterday.
“The police action was out of concern for public safety and security of the persons attending the final which was priority,” the statement added.
“The police action in stopping the sale of tickets had to do with the fact that the stands and mound of the stadium were filled to capacity. There was no electronic equipment to check persons by head, but in addition, there were hundreds of persons outside, some of whom had tickets, and others were at the booths where tickets were still for sale,” the release noted.
However, after the decisions were effected, hundreds of persons began scaling fences on the western and northern side of the ground, ran past the security towards the mound area.
According to the release,”without pointing fingers it would appear that there was either bogus tickets or more tickets were printed than the number of persons that could be accommodated at the stadium.”
The release also pointed out that the organisers breeched the agreement that the tickets were to be colour-coded while there was also no agreement for persons to view the games on big screen televisions.
“This only resulted after the organisers were notified by the police that the stands and mound were filled to capacity,” the release stated.
The GPF also said it had contacted the Fire Chief who explained that the ”concern of the Fire Service personnel was not that the gates had been locked but rather who and what agency was in possession of the keys for the gates. When it was clarified that the keys were in possession of the police and not any outside agency, and the ranks with the keys were present at the gates, they were satisfied,” the release stated.
