Guyana Football Federation (GFF) president Christopher Matthias accompanied by GFF Vice President of Competitions Collie Hercules departed Guyana Sunday to attend the 63rd FIFA Congress in Mauritius.
The congress is scheduled to take place on Thursday and Friday.
Matthias, during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport, said that a presentation will be made on the direction the federation intends to take sport nationally and that assistance in eliminating the inherited GFF financial debt will also be requested.
“From all estimation to successfully develop the sport there must be a national manifesto that covers all areas. With the current proposed development plan of the new executives it is likely that the budget of 50 million dollars has to be augmented by another 50 million dollars. We will make this proposal to FIFA,” said Matthias.
According to Matthias financial mismanagement over the last two decades is to blame for the current financial posture of the GFF as the entity is currently indebted in excess of 30 million dollars while only possessing a quarter of a million dollars in its coffers.
“It is estimated that in excess of 800 million dollars would have passed through this institution and we have nothing to show for it but indebtedness of 30 million and a mere quarter million dollars in our account,” he added.
Matthias further stated that the Goal Project will also be discussed and that an establishment of a timeline for acquiring another Goal Project upon the conclusion of the current project will also be inquired about.
The most important piece of the business that will be discussed at the FIFA Congress will clearly be the proposed amendment to the FIFA statutes relating to the last remaining decisions in the two year governance process.
Following on from the major steps already approved at last year’s FIFA congress in Budapest, Hungary, the member associations will vote on a final series of amendments, comprising 10 main points aimed at further strengthening FIFA’s governance structures as well as increasing integrity, transparency and representative nature of world football’s governing entity.
Beyond the reforms, the Congress will be asked to approve FIFA’s consolidated financial statements of 2012 which include a positive annual report of US$89 million and the detailed 2014 budget.
A series of updates will also be provided on a number of strategic and sports political matters including reports on FIFA’s ongoing efforts to tackle match-fixing as well as discrimination and racism.
The first ever formal election of a female member of the FIFA Executive Committee is also set to take place following on from last year’s milestone appointment of Republic of Burundi’s Lydia Nsekera on a one year co-opted basis.
In addition the Executive Committee has asked the Congress to approve the additional co-opting of two further female members so to bring the total number of women on the FIFA executive to three. The other women proposed by their respective confederations are Australia’s Moya Dodd, New Zealander Paul Kearns and Sonia Bien-Aime of the Turk and Caicos Islands.
