The Golden Jaguars were not destructive these last few weeks.
Rather, they limped along, undernourished while successfully completing the first two phases of its mission.
Now it’s onward to the biggest of the challenges for the national football team at the upcoming Digicel Caribbean Cup Finals.
In qualifying for only its third ever Caribbean Cup Finals, the Jaguars pawed aside arch rivals and nemesis Suriname and the likes of Haiti, a favorite to due to its superior credentials.
Yet, topping Haiti and Suriname might eventually be minor challenges for the Jaguars compared to the more daunting task of acquiring resources to prepare for the Martinique finals.
Considering the strong resilience displayed by the squad in preparing and then emerging successful in the two qualifying rounds in Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, it would be a shame if the Jaguars are denied the right to give their best shot in the Cup’s most important segment.
Hardly any national team around the world these days, even those comprising the millionaire professionals from the European Leagues, would settle for minuscule and in some cases nonexistent playing allowances for international competition, or limited match practice and training camps, to boot.
Not so for the Jaguars.
They endured it all, including the inexplicable experience of United States-based JP Rodrigues being made to travel overland to Suriname in a mad scramble, after a late flight to Guyana. Yet the team emerged with flying colors.
For those who follow Guyana’s football, the players’ substandard treatment was par for course for the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) regarding treatment of its players.
Which is why you could be excused for harbouring cynical feelings for the Jaguars’ continued success in the competition’s most important phase.
More than half of the team comprise full time professionals in North America and England. And even if these players are not plying their trade in Major League Soccer (MLS) or the English Premier League, they are not accustomed to unprofessional treatment before, after and during competitions.
The Guyana based players, although not being immune to such treatment, nevertheless are accustomed to grinning and bearing it, being long suffering victims of an uncaring and dysfunctional Guyana Football Federation executive.
You have to cringe when thinking about the possible repercussions the experience could have on the morale and appetite for continued service to Guyana for the likes of overseas-based newcomers Sean Cameron, Chris Nurse , Christopher Bourne, Jake Newton, among others and, to a lesser extent, Rodrigues who has been on previous campaigns, but whose patience could be wearing thin with every engagement.
Unsurprisingly, a few noted casualties were suffered as a result over the years.
Guyana’s two best forwards from previous Digicel competitions – Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson and Nigel Codrington have washed their hands of national team football.
They could not be persuaded to join the team this year after stellar performances in the 2007 Cup.
Also Randolph “Blackhead” Jerome, another gifted striker has not been heard of since the 2008 championship.
These players were victims of horrendous treatment endured by the team during the 2008 Cup when the lack of basic living requirements of food and proper shelter in Trinidad and Tobago during a pre competition encampment exercise, almost sparked a team mutiny against GFF President Colin Klass.
He survived demands for his resignation, but the experience scuttled the team’s chances of reaching the Finals then.
Before the Jaguars left for this year’s second round in Trinidad and Tobago, Klass, who seems as if he can do no better than staging media conferences to appeal for financial help, reverted to his hollow stuck-record act.
It meant that the well worn no-funds excuse will make the rounds again and even if the team makes it to the November 26-December 5 Finals, the Jaguars would need big time polishing up to better Guyana’s 2007 fifth place finish.
Unlike then, when they banged in 28 goals in the three rounds, the Jaguars have only nine from two rounds in 2010.
The team badly needs punch on the forward line and Coach Wayne Dover has not been averse to lamenting that shortcoming.
Which is why Richardson and Codrington is, must be persuaded to rejoin the ranks. Already Russell Latapy, coach of the powerful Trinidad and Tobago team, plans to boost his squad with eight more quality foreign-based professionals.
Richardson’s exploits for Pele, Joe Public in the Trinidad pro league and now for Carolina Railhawks in the United States USSSL league are well documented. It led to him becoming the first Guyanese to play in Major League Soccer (MLS).
In amassing 10 goals, including a splendid hat trick against Guadeloupe in the Finals which earned him the highest scorer title in 2007, Codrington inscribed his name among the elite group of top Guyanese performers in Regional competition, at the time.
His goal scoring qualities were on show up to last week for Camptown in the National Super League.
But to have him and Richardson back, conditions will have to improve, primarily the allowance money, among other basic requirements. The GFF’s never ending financial problems mean money will not be had from that source.
And this is where President Jagdeo’s government comes into the picture.
In the recent times the national election’s season of generosity has kicked in, with the government doling out 20 million dollars to the national cricket team, five million to the national Sevens Rugby squad and this week, Jagdeo has reportedly promised to gift the Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club $40 million.
So why not the national football team too?
If any other Guyana team deserves similar generosity, it has to the Golden Jaguars which has quietly climbed the FIFA, world rankings to its highest ever in decades at number 98, which is the best in the Caribbean excluding Jamaica.
In Martinique they have a golden opportunity to ascend higher. But it requires money to properly prepare for a calibre competition and another Jagdeo sports windfall would have the effect of an oasis to a desert straggler, on the Jaguars.
Apart from satisfying the players’ allowances, the majority, who will have to take leave from their professional duties, the Jaguars need a solid encampment stint with everyone on board.
To say much is at stake for them in Martinique would be an understatement.
In the West Indian context, the Digicel Finals prize money which is US120, 000 for the winner, is lucrative enough to worth any investment.
And a few more hundreds of thousands will be at stake for the Jaguars if they qualify among the top four for the more prestigious CONCACAF (North America, Central American, Caribbean) Gold Cup set for next year in the United States.
Additional team benefits through sponsorship and elevation to lucrative pro contracts for the players are also at stake.
The government needs not deal directly with the GFF administration, whose poor track record with finances is notorious, in salvaging the Jaguars preparation.
It can make arrangements with a third party like the Kashif and Shanghai organization or another facilitator to filter through its funding.
Football is the world’s most popular sport but Guyana has never made a big impact internationally.
This is as good an opportunity as ever for government and other stakeholders to help facilitate Guyana’s best ever showing in the world’s game.
It is only through such support that the Jaguars might finally roar.
