Disenchanted football officials are wary of long-standing Guyana Football Federation (GFF) president Colin Klass serving another four years at the helm, declaring they would prefer “a one eye, one foot, one hand man” to take the reins of football which has suffered under Klass.
The officials, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that they are “fed up and frustrated” with Klass and his retrogressive policies for the development of the game in Guyana.
“For 22 years he lacks vision and he has no mission to elevate the sport,” one official said yesterday in a telephone interview.
This particular official believes that football in Guyana is in dire need of “an Egyptian-style revolution.” Another official believes that with the politics surrounding football in Guyana there will always be confusion.
He made this point against the backdrop that Klass will return to head the GFF unopposed since Stabroek Sport understands that nominations and voting rights were awarded to delegates and associations that have done little for the development of players and the game. This publication learnt yesterday that Bartica, West Coast Demerara, East Bank Demerara, East Coast Demerara, Berbice, the Women’s arm and the Referees Council have voting rights for the April 16 elections.
The three positions that will be contested are President, Second Vice-President and Assistant Secretary-Treasurer. When Stabroek Sport made contact and visited the GFF for a comment on the elections we were told to call today.
However, the most active associations of Georgetown and Linden, along with Essequibo and the Rupununi Region and the Guyana Football Coaches Association (GFCA) have not been given rights to vote. This newspaper was told Georgetown and Linden and the GFCA have strongly opposed the way football development, or lack thereof, was administered under the stewardship of Klass.
This, the officials said, is the major reason for not securing any nominations to cast votes at the upcoming polls.
With this move by the GFF, the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) was prompted to pen a letter informing the GFF that the General Council of the GFA had mandated “a constitutional committee to meet with the executives of the GFF on or before Thursday 31st March 2011, to address the issue regarding the constitutional rights of the GFA.”
In the letter that was seen by Stabroek Sport, General Secretary of the GFA Christopher Matthias asked that the meeting be in a timely manner. The letter was carbon copied to 11 associations and 20 clubs. Some of the officials also added that the initial letter was supposed to have stated specifically what were the issues to be discussed.
Another reason for GFA writing the letter, according to some of the officials, was in part due to the secrecy surrounding the awarding of nominations to electors.
Apart from that, two of the officials stated that the letter should have been carbon copied to CONCACAF, Caribbean Football Union (CFU) and the media.
The group of officials contend that under Klass’ watch there was very little or no infrastructure developed, referring mainly to the FIFA Goal Project.
The goal project should have included a national technical centre with a playing field, stands, dressing rooms and accommodation. This facility also would have been used to offer a more advanced level of training for national teams at every level.
At the launch of the project in February of 2010, it was promised that the first phase would have been completed within a five-month span. Alki Investment Inc. was the company responsible for the construction of the US$400,000 facility located at Orangestein, East Bank Essequibo.
Yesterday the disgruntled officials said that they are still awaiting this facility although the GFF has been receiving US$250,000 since 1998.
