Suspended Upper Demerara Football Association President Sharma Solomon yesterday said that the association challenges the reckless and unconstitutional decision of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), declaring that the entire process was riddled with violations of the rules.
Speaking at a media briefing held yesterday at the Critchlow Labour College on Woolford Avenue, Solomon said:“The executives of the UDFA were never charged and placed in front of a disciplinary committee where the right to be heard would have been given based on Article 56 of the GFF constitution.
“Article 56 speaks to the judicial bodies which are the disciplinary committee and the appeal committee,” said Solomon.
He added that only a congress that is properly convened has the authority to make such decisions.
“What has been done over the period for the summoning of the congress did not conform to the requirements of the constitution.
“And in one case, Ivan Persaud, GFF Vice President wrote to the General Secretary requesting to be advised who gave the authority for the summoning of an Extraordinary Congress. No response was given to Mr. Persaud,” added Solomon.
The UDFA president, who was slapped with an eight year ban, stated that the origin of the issue was due to the GFA and the UDFA hosting their respective finals on the same date.
He said that football has been near and dear to the Linden community evident by the finals for the K&S operations being held in the jurisdiction for a number of years.
“The January 1st football finals did well for the economy of Linden and it was also looked forward to as a tourist attraction. The decision to remove the finals to the Stadium at Providence made Linden poorer,” said Solomon speaking of the decision by the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation to move their year end football final to the Providence National Stadium.
“The UDFA sees this as a deliberate act of undermining the economy of Linden and moreso denying the residents a well look-forward-to event. The UDFA has taken a decision that they would run their own competition in Linden exclusively with their clubs for the benefit of the players and the community.”
Solomon blamed party politics for the decision.
“It is vindictive party politics that wants to determine Linden Football. It is the same vindictive party politics which has unleashed a structured and sustained programme to destroy the economic well-being of the people of Linden that resulted in the K&S final being run at the Providence Stadium.
“It is the same programme of economic marginalization that is being applied to UDFA to deny them the right to hold their own tournament and have their final on January 1st,” he added.
Solomon stated that while the UDFA recognizes the respected positions held previously by the GFF President and General Secretary, the body wishes to register its concern with regards to the quality of leadership shown by the two individuals.
“Their performance at this juncture brings into question what quality of service they may have given to the taxpayers of this country as we see the breaking of the GFF rules to satisfy the political machination of a group at the expense of the UDFA and the people of Linden,” said Solomon.
He continued:“We know those whose arms are long, spiteful and vindictive but we hope they will take note and seek to correct their intransigence, rather than coming to harm leaders, their families and those who support them. We demand justice as we pursued a just cause.
“We are here to say that the association is supported by its clubs and they will play its football. Nothing has changed and the mandate is the same which is to promote football,” said Solomon.
GFF Vice President of Competitions, Collie Hercules, during a brief comment said:“I was not privy to any extraordinary congress being called and we excused ourselves from the meeting. My stance is not that I am from Linden, I just can’t sit on a body that does not adhere to the rules of the constitution.”
The GFF during their first congress of the year on January 17 at the entity’s Section-K Campbellville headquarters, suspended the entire executive body of UDFA.
The suspension was a result of the UDFA’s decision to disregard the congresses’ initial verdict that the association cannot host their GT Beer tournament finale on New Year’s Day, parallel to the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) Banks Beer final.
Apart from Solomon’s ban all current members of the association including Hercules was slapped with five year suspensions.
