So, it will be a Christmas without Kashif and Shanghai football, and thanks to uninspired leadership by the new Guyana Football Federation (GFF) administration, bruised feelings are being nursed within the fraternity at a time when Guyanese are accustomed to sharing goodwill.
Having announced it will not stage the competition this year for the first time in 23 years, the Kashif and Shanghai organization has broken a tradition that has become a part of Christmas as much as pepper pot and bread is a requirement for all Guyanese.
And in declining to state whether they will fight to convince the GFF that theirs must be the sole Christmas competition instead of the Georgetown Football Association’s Banks Beer series, only Kashif and Shanghai knows what the competition’s future holds.
So, fans are left in limbo regarding the tournament that has brought the legendary football “King” Pele to Guyana, thousands of overseas-based Guyanese home every year, and which exposed many players from Rupununi to Rosignol to the highest level of club competition, the country has known.
Will it be replaced forever or temporary by the school competition set for this year is the million-dollar question?
Kashif Mohammed and Aubrey “Shanghai” Major, co-founders of the series, were adamant in refusing to share the Christmas/New Year’s time slot with another competition, which is what they endured the last two years. This feeling is understandable given the lack of maximum crowd support, media attention and last but not least, revenue, which they enjoyed previously before the GFA tournament arrived, with more prize money and a clear agenda.
And with the GFF declining to provide K&S any guarantee the latter pulled the plug to concentrate on the school competition thus paving the way for the GFA series to be the sole Christmas treat in 2013/14.
Now, if the GFF thinks it can breathe a sigh of relief in not having to decide on whether to allow one or both competitions and feels the matter will die a slow death, it had better think again.
This issue is far from over and it could be the seed that could reopen the old rivalry that split relations between clubs and teams from the Georgetown and Linden fraternities in the old days.
Kashif and Shanghai represents the best of everything Linden has to offer to Guyana’s football and still has tremendous support from the Mining Town. With the GFA series representing rivals Georgetown, its supporters will feel the city has won with K&S’s pull out. So, Linden will be hoping and planning a backlash in whatever from possible, which is hardly the environment needed to take the country’s football forward.
This is where the GFF failed to make its presence felt as the nation’s governing body. With some measure of astute thinking it could’ve avoided this unpalatable situation, that has left K&S, the foremost organizers in local football for two decades, full of anger and resentment.
What was so difficult for the GFF to come up with a solution by letting democracy decide the fate of the Kashif and Shanghai series?
A vote among registered clubs around the country to determine whether Kashif and Shanghai or the GFA competition be staged this Christmas would’ve been ideal.
In so doing, the clubs would’ve stood to benefit the most as both organizations would’ve been forced to up the stakes including prize money and other rewards, to win the votes.
The market would’ve been the sole decision maker as is the case around the world which involves competition.
At least in the end, either party would have less reason to be aggrieved, regardless, who won the vote, given that competition is backbone of business dealings.
Instead, the GFF dithered and added unheard of red tape for consideration as stated by K&S who are now inclined to feel hard done by, given the federation’s President, Christopher Matthias’ connection to the GFA, as a top official as recent as last year.
Even after K&S’s decision, Matthias failed to do his duty as President, by not commenting officially on behalf of the federation, to state its feelings on the new development. Not even words of commendation to K&S for taking football to a higher level of popularity for 23 long years. This lack of statesmanship by Matthias does not augur well for him as leader of the nation’s football.
He is known for bombarding the media with press releases outlining his many trips to various parts of the world for FIFA meetings. Similarly, the public wants him to be visible during problems as the role he was entrusted with by the electorate is not about him. Rather it is about building football to produce a better product, though the national teams.
For their part Kashif and Shanghai, did its best to shoot itself in the foot in the first instance to precipitate the problem two years ago.
It’s decision to debar top teams from Georgetown including Alpha United, led to the birth of the rival GFA competition. Muhammad and Major can argue all they want about following the rules that forbid Alpha and others, but one has to ask whose rules?
Surely it wasn’t Kashif and Shanghai’s rules, rather those of the disgraced Colin Klass-led GFF.
One must ask how much did they go out of the way to bend those rules to have the best teams play in 2011/12 tournament.
How much did K&S do to convince Klass they wanted to continue giving the fans the best football they have been accustomed to from the competition with teams one to sixteen involved? Surely, the K&S tourney would’ve been too powerful for the now FIFA-banned Klass to kill, for going against his wishes.
In is now ironic, two years later Kashif and Shanghai are demanding to have the best teams play.
The problem is the group failed to fully honor its motto of doing the best for the teams in 2011/12.
The elephant in the room, in this case is the politics K&S allowed to dominate their running of the tournament.
They bought into Klass’ politics which for years despised Georgetown’s football, and K&S’s close association with the Government did not help. Yes, Bharrat Jagdeo may have doled out lots of tax payers money for the K&S tourney, but in accepting the promotion group’s act was akin to drinking from a poisoned chalice, given the acrimonious relationship local football has endured with the current regime over the years.
So, as the GFA prepares for its maiden monopoly year with its 32-team tourney and Kashif and Shanghai concentrates on the schools, the public awaits Matthias’ plans to heal the budding Georgetown/Linden rift.
