Guyana Football Federation (GFF) president Christopher Matthias following his return from the 63rd FIFA Congress which was held on May 30th -31st in the island of Mauritius stated that the approach and advancements taken by the GFF is in line with fundamental guidelines of the world governing body.
Matthias during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport stated:“The direction in which the new executive is going has become the base policy of FIFA which is accountability, transparency and a structured approach to development of the sport.”
According to Matthias, while CONCACAF is disappointed with Guyana for not capitalizing on the FIFA Goal Project after being part of the original project allocation in the region, there is no timetable preventing Guyana from applying for another Goal Project upon the immediate completion of the first.
“Guyana can apply for the next Goal Project immediately upon the completion of the first project. The desire for us would be to establish the next project in the mining town of Linden with the overall indication being to have three or four projects,” said Matthias.
He added:“Starting this month we will be constructing a fence around the location of the first project in Orangestein, East Bank Essequibo once we submit a new contract for the restarting of the project to the FIFA developmental committee.”
Matthias said that except for CONCACAF, all the other confederations would have gone done the path previously of structured advancement and that CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb has established that Guyana would be facing no sanctions with regards to the Beach Football issue.
In closing Matthias stated: “Once we have good governance, CONCACAF will be on board. We will be inviting them for the opening of the GFF 2013 season which includes the launching of the GFF
‘The Nations Cup’ which will feature 38 duly constituted clubs from every association competing in a knockout tournament similar to the English FA Cup. This competition is expected to commence during the month of August and conclude on May 4th 2014 and will be contested with over seven million dollars in cash and prizes to be won”.
