By Emmerson Campbell
The Guyana Football Fed-eration (GFF) and the Guyana Football Association (GFA) have been locked in a bitter dispute for quite some time and according to National Coach of the Golden Jaguars, Jamaal Shabazz, this has led to the detriment of the local based players on the national team.
The dispute which has led to inactivity of the local players has stymied their progress and numerous players have suffered from fitness problems which have led to injuries.
During an exclusive interview with Shabazz on Wednesday, the national Coach stated that the local players will be inactive while the overseas-based players will return to their clubs and as such the local ball weavers will struggle to be match ready.
“The players who play overseas will return to their clubs in Trinidad, in Puerto Rico, in the US, Jamaica and in England while the local based players remain in the morass with a GFF/GFA conflict with no football, how we expect them to be match ready remains the biggest scientific problem in world football.”
Shabazz added “I’m trying to get Judge Judy to adjudicate in this matter because it is going nowhere. What we know is that those who say they love football, have shown no desire to solve the problem, and it’s just frustrating to see.”
The national Coach pointed out that the Caribbean Cup will kick off in October and the aim is to field a predominantly local team.
“We have the Caribbean Cup Qualifiers at the end of October and we want to focus on a more local-based team but how, because the players are not active?” he asked.
To combat this scenario, Shabazz noted that the players will have to be encamped in order to select the strongest team for the upcoming tournament.
However support will be needed for the camp.
Said Shabazz: “In the absence of them playing with their clubs we will have to create an atmosphere in the camp to subsidize that but of course that is an expensive process because you have to pay the players a stipend, you have to feed them, pay for transport and so on.”
He continued: “We could get some more help from the government, we would like more help from corporate Guyana and the government, so far the sponsors that have been on board has done well but to carry this thing you cannot do it without the government, it is virtually impossible to take football forward in any Caribbean country without a definite commitment from the government”.
The GFF and the GFA have been in a dispute since 2009 after the GFF refused to give the GFA voting rights.
