President of Alpha United Football Club Odinga Lumumba believes that while the Kashif and Shanghai tournament is a positive for the development of football in the country the organisers are exploiting the players’ talents and not properly compensating them.
Lumumba, speaking with Stabroek Sport yesterday, is of the opinion that the Kashif & Shanghai tournament’s top prize should be $4 million instead of $2 million.
Lumumba yesterday argued that it takes $1.5 million to prepare his team for the end of year tournament and it is unfair to the players to be playing for such an amount.
He emphasised this point by stating that after accounting for operating expenses accrued during the tournament players cannot receive sufficient reward for all their efforts throughout the tournament.
This, according to Lumumba, is the “downside of the tournament,” which is in its 21st year and starts on December 12.
“It is a good tournament, it is good for football development but there is a downside. I don’t have a problem with people making money but it has to trickle down to the players.
“This is exploitation by the organisers and it is unfair to the players to use the skill of the footballers and make money.
“The stakeholders are not benefitting from this tournament, so you then have to question the objective of this tournament. It takes 1.5 million dollars to prepare (our team) for this tournament; we have to get two sets of uniforms, boots and other things, Lumumba explained.
Lumumba, who is also the Presidential Advisor on Empowerment, also believes that business entities should step in on behalf of the players to demand a better compensation package.
He also claimed that the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation, which is headed by Kashif Muhammad and Aubrey ‘Shanghai’ Major, has received over $35 million in sponsorship from corporate Guyana.
Therefore, Lumumba is requesting that the organisers make public the amount of monies they make from donors so that persons can judge whether the prize monies that K&S organisation is offering is justified. With this suggestion Lumumba added that there should be a players’ council to represent them in instances where there is the perception that players are being exploited.
On the other hand, Lumumba said that officials of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) are compromised by their mere holding positions in K&S organisation. He believes that there is “a conflict of interest [since] the Public Relations Officer of the organisation is the Vice President of the GFF.”
“Who do you go to if there is a problem, this is a conflict of interest?,” Lumumba questioned.
Lumumba also stated that after the year end tourney the organisers do nothing else for football in Guyana.
When Stabroek Sport contacted Major of the K&S organisation yesterday he said that the claims are unfair.”
He indicated that with the growth of the tournament came additional expenses and for Lumumba to make claims of exploitation is unreasonable.
“We don’t put together no slam-dash tournament [this] is a quality tournament. We spend a lot of money on this football to transport teams, meals and equipment”, Major explained.
Additionally, Major said that the organisation has to pay a levy fee to the GFF coupled with the fact that preparatory work and the cost to use the Guyana National Stadium run into the millions.
He also believes that Lumumba’s comments stem from envy.
According to Major, the other clubs have found no problems with the structure of the K&S tournament.
Major is of the opinion that Lumumba is trying to cause strife in the football fraternity.
Major pointed out that last year the second place finisher received $500,000 and this year they will be receiving $1 million and this is part of the growth.
He also revealed that the K&S will be paying the airfare tickets for the two teams that will be coming for the tournament.
One team will be coming from Barbados, called the Caribbean United, and the Brazilian team, Athletico Football Club of Boa Vista, will be playing on the opening night against a Guyana squad.
