President of Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United team, Odinga Lumumba, who is also a Presidential Advisor, has emerged as a challenger to GFF President Colin Klass for the Elections and Congress on May 27.
Stabroek Sport learnt yesterday that there are also other contenders for the position but Lumumba seems to be the most “logical choice” based on his track record with the national club champions.
According to the source, it is believed that Lumumba “will get things done and is capable of lifting Guyana’s football out of the doldrums from where Klass has held it for the past 24 years.”
The source contended that Lumumba will bring strong leadership to the GFF and his connections will serve to restore standards to the GFF and the game of football. The source stated that it was through the vision of Lumumba and his executives that Alpha United were able to rule the roost of local football for the past five years and this the source believes can also be achieved at the GFF level.
Lowest standards
The source argued that football standards on the field and administratively are the lowest in this hemisphere and the time is ripe for change. The source said that Klass, who has headed the GFF since 1989, can boast of very little during his tenure with the GFF.
This point was made against the backdrop of GFF receiving US$250,000 from FIFA’s Financial Assistance Programme (FAP) since 1998. The source emphasised that with this sort of assistance from the world governing body Guyana should have been in better stead, especially since there is progress to be seen from other countries that received the same package.
Apart from that, the source stated that for years the election process has been skewed and designed in a manner where officials were elected to office unopposed. This would have been the case this year also for the positions of President, Second Vice-President and Assistant Secretary-Treasurer.
However, the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) in particular, along with the Upper Demerara Football Association (UDFA), was locked in battle to have their constitutional rights restored. The elections and congress were slated to go ahead as planned without these two major associations on April 30 but the GFA had pinned the GFF to the constitutional breach of Article 25 (2), (3).
Breach
Sustained pressure from the GFA resulted in the GFF conceding that there was a breach and therefore it was in the best interest to have the elections postponed to May 27. Further, if the elections had gone ahead as planned then some persons would have been moving to the courts to have the process nullified.
This postponement also meant that the nomination process would start afresh and the GFA and UDFA would have been restored their constitutional rights after their submission of documents to the GFF. These developments had come out of a meeting with Klass and representatives of the GFA and UDFA at a closed door meeting held weeks ago at the Pegasus Hotel.
On the other hand, another source said that there are currently ongoing discussions with some other associations and affiliate members to come up with a challenger to Klass or for one of the positions.
He said that one association cannot go it alone if change is the tagline in the process to develop football in Guyana.
“Confused and kerfuffled”
This source did not mention any names but maintained that there are some competent people in the pool of contenders. This official was disheartened by the state of affairs in football administratively, on the field of play and in terms of infrastructure.
The source was adamant that for too long Klass has “confused and kerfuffled” the process for other persons to challenge him and since there is an opportunity now the associations should stand as one and select a successor.
Further, the source said that administratively there are many wrongs, citing the GFF having two General Secretaries in George Rutherford and Noel Adonis. With this he said that there should be more accountability in this organization, especially since there is always the issue of inadequate finances.
The source also posited that the top echelons of the GFF seem “happy with delinquency”, declaring that there is evidence of “fundamental weaknesses in the structure.”
This situation, the official said, reaffirmed his position that all the associations have an opportunity to make a change.
