Dear Editor,
The eight and five-year bans imposed on the Upper Demerara Football Association (UDFA) executives by the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) under the presidency of Christopher Matthias for staging their GT Beer Tournament finals on New Year’s Day alongside the GFA Banks Beer Competition finals, disregarding the GFF decision/directive not to do so is vindictive and insensitive. I am not concerned about the details of what is constitutional or unconstitutional, neither am I suggesting that there should be no laws ‒ I do subscribe to the upkeep of laws. But it is never productive for an organisation to stand at a distance and hand down rules as a matter of naked authority without examining and taking into account things unique and germane to the issue at hand.
Have Mr Matthias and his executives examined closely the history and status of the Linden community? This game that the community has grown accustomed to has been hijacked and now they are left bare. This now lucrative game through the initiative and organising skills of Kashif and Shanghai has been established for over twenty years, and has developed through exciting competitions, with the finals being played on every first of January, come what may. It has been organised to the point where the entire community revolves around it. The day of the finals has become a high-profile day; folks travel from all parts of this country to come to Linden, as well as from abroad. Thousands of them don’t even see the games, the ground couldn’t hold them all even if they wanted. But they just come. The community is transferred into a hive of activity; every New Year’s Day there is football carnival in Linden and nowhere else ‒ never!
Understand that this was done to provide a form of entertainment for folks in the community to fill a void; it started small and caught on well, becoming a yearly national event on our calendar. Now Mr Matthias and buddies want us to revert to the void ‒ stay put, remain just that way. Well hear, Sir, no way!
Says Mr Matthias: “The congress has formally established zero tolerance for any disregard of its directive and or decisions, all are required to comply fully with the directive/decisions of FIFA, CONCACAF, CFU, the GOA and the GFF.”
Look no disrespect, but with respect to these organisations and their ‘sacred’ rules, it should be understood that our constitution ‒ that of our people ‒ is not subordinate to theirs; it never was and never will be. Lest they forget, I again remind them and their buddies to consider that the present football hysteria and carnival on New Year’s Day, dates back over twenty years and was created in Linden, the brainchild of Kashif and Shanghi organisation. We need some space and moreso we need some respect. We will not be bullied into doing what they feel like, so why are they so presumptuous? No set of rules is cast in stone; in any event rules are made to serve men, not the reverse. When rules become a hindrance, they also become counter-productive.
Tell me, should we be so subservient as to observe every iota of a ruling or directive of some distant, out-of-touch bodies who come see us once in a blue moon? Aren’t we allowed a modicum of movement, some autonomy? Would that significantly impact on the gargantuan grip and functions of the mighty FIFA? I think not. Why this approach under the guise of “zero tolerance”? This is not the way to build a harmonious fraternity. Whence cometh Matthias, his executives and the FIFA rules to damn us, banish us, relegate us, rebuke us and discipline us like naughty children? Who told Mr Matthias and his buddies with those mechanical rules that they are more high and mighty and more important than the community of Linden/Region10?
Linden/RegionTen’s well-being, interest and livelihood come first, and are the number one priority. Linden/Region10 does not subscribe to doing business Mr Matthias’s way.
Yours faithfully,
Frank Fyffe
