Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United Football Club will appear after all in the 21st edition of the Kashif & Shanghai tournament on December 12 after the intervention of the governing body.
President of Alpha United Odinga Lumumba had publicly threatened to pull his team from the tournament because he felt that the organisers were not adequately compensating the players. This eventually led to K&S saying that Lumumba had ruled the team out of the tournament and the organizers then announced that Ann’s Grove would replace Alpha.
Lumumba had contended that more money should have been flowing to the players and clubs, especially since the K&S Organisation had received larger sponsorship packages from corporate Guyana.
In the ensuing days some other clubs had come out in support of Lumumba and they formed the Clubs for Negotiation (CFN) which met with the K&S organisers and the GFF to iron out some of their concerns.
After those negotiations the GFF drafted a memo on Monday giving the 18 teams initially approved by the GFF and the K&S Organisation 48 hours to respond. Also, coming out of those talks with the GFF was the increase in the preparation fee from $50,000 to $120,000.
Yesterday, Lumumba backed off on his decision although the first prize money of $2 million has not been hiked by the organisers. The $5 million sponsorship kit for the first place is also still in place as initially stipulated by the organisers.
In Lumumba’s letter to the GFF yesterday he wrote, “Alpha United Football Club has accepted the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) memorandum of November 29th, 2010 as it relates to the 21st Kashif & Shanghai Football Tournament. Alpha’s decision to participate is based on the commitments listed by the Kashif & Shanghai Organisation and the prize structure that has been guaranteed by the GFF and the host group, Kashif & Shanghai Organisation.”
Lumumba added: “The documented assurance from your organisation that the cash payment for the first place winner supplemented by five million kit sponsorship for the first place and 2 million dollars kit sponsorship for the second place club by a company called Plus One is commendable.”
Yesterday K&S in a statement said that all the teams that were initially approached will be participating after the mediation of the GFF. They also indicated that the prize structure has remained the same.
On the participation fee, “One of the issues that were discussed by the GFF and the K&S Organisation related to the appearance fees which have been increased from the original 50,000 to 120,000. Clubs will receive 60,000 before the tournament with the remainder to be collected at the tournament presentation. This formula for payments of the appearance fee has been agreed by the clubs,” the statement read.
The kick-off date for the tournament remains the same and the first game will be at the Providence National Stadium.
The Golden Jaguars will face Atletico Roraima in the feature game of the double header while an Upper Demerara Under-23 will take on the National Under-20 team.