Matthias survives no confidence motion

– Decides to reconvene Congress in 45 days to settle differences with disgruntled associations

It was courage under fire as Guyana Football Federation (GFF) President Christopher Matthias survived a no-confidence motion during the entity’s ordinary congress yesterday at the Regency Suites Hotel, resulting in the congress being scheduled to reconvene in 45 days.

The reconvening of the congress to the later date was the result of a decision by the president to settle the differences between those disgruntled associations, following the walking out and subsequent returning of six associations during the congress.

Those associations were the Georgetown Football Association (GFA), National Women’s Football Association (NWFA), Guyana Football Coaches Association (GFCA), Guyana Football Referees Council (GFRC), East Coast Football Association (ECFA) and East Demerara Football Association (EDFA)

The reason for the sudden withdrawal of the associations was due to the no-confidence motion against Matthias being discarded following a 9-9 voting stalemate. However, they would eventually return to accept the decision to reconvene the congress.

The decision to reconvene at a later date was welcomed by CONCACAF Director of Legal Affairs Marco Leal, FIFA developmental Officer Howard McIntosh and CONCACAF Legal Advisor Bruce Blake, who acted in the capacity of observers.

McIntosh in an invited comment said that while he is disappointed at the outcome, he hopes that a resolution to the conflict can be found in the interest of the sport.

Due to the decision, the election for the vacant posts of the two vice presidents was not done while the report of the federation’s forensic audit for the period January 1998-December 2012 was also not discussed.

Prior to the reconvening of the meeting, the genesis of the confusion occurred when GFA General Secretary Odinga Lumumba moved a motion to have the no-confidence motion against the president moved up in the agenda of congress.

However, the no-confidence motion which was filed by the EBFA and seconded by the ECFA, was deemed by some sections of the GFF congress through Article 26 of the body’s constitution, not to have properly followed the protocols required of a filing motion.

This was due to the EBFA no-confidence motion not having a description of why it is being filed against the GFF boss, which is one of the main criteria’s for submitting motions. The aforesaid correspondence neither had a letterhead nor returning address.

It was then decided following a lengthy debate between sections of the gathering that a vote should be utilised to decide if the motion should be entertained at the Congress.

However, this would lead to further confusion as the GFA, NWFA, GFCA, GFRC, ECFA and EDFA challenged the voting legitimacy of Upper Demerara Football Association (UDFA), Bartica Football Association (BFA) and Essequibo/Pomeroon Football Association (EPFA) and their representatives, due to their status as Interim Management Committees (IMC).

These six bodies contended that due to the three’s status as IMC’s, they should not be able to vote during the process.

They would also question the legitimacy of the GFF electoral committee which comprised of Joseph Harmon, Euclin Gomes, Charles Corbin and Dawn Holder, stating that the body is unconstitutional and cannot decide who can and can’t vote.

This eventually led to electoral committee choosing to leave the congress, stating through its Chairman Harmon that it didn’t not want to be seen as an unconstitutional body.

However, the GFF president’s copy of minutes from a November 2010 special meeting, provided evidence to refute this assertion, showing that the Essequibo IMC did in fact vote as part of a 10 man body during the ratification of the GFF constitution at that said meeting.

This novel piece of information would lead to further discord amongst the gathering as they jostled back and forth to justify their respective views.

However the eventual resulting voting process would lead to 9-9 split amongst the 19 eligible delegates as each association exclusive of the women’s, coaches and referees were allowed two votes each. These three entities due to their affiliation status were allowed one vote each.

The GFA, ECFA, EDFA, GFCA, GFRC and NWFA voted in favour of recognizing the motion while the UDFA, BFA, Berbice Football Association, West Demerara Football Association (WDFA) and EPFA voted against, with one member of the WDFA abstaining.

With a clear position unable to be achieved with regards to the motion due to a second 9-9 stalemate, the motion was eventually discarded. This resulted in the GFA, ECFA, EDFA, GFCA, GFRC and NWFA walking out of the congress.

GFRC President Alfred King during an invited comment after walking out the congress said that the motion was defeated by some illegal delegates of the respective IMC’s and that was a blatant breach of the constitution.

Lumumba said that a lot of atrocities were committed and that an appeal will be made to FIFA and CONCACAF for the matter to be resolved.

Matthias survives no

confidence motion

– Decides to reconvene Congress in 45 days to settle

differences with disgruntled associations

By Duncan Saul

It was courage under fire as Guyana Football Federation (GFF) President Christopher Matthias survived a no-confidence motion during the entity’s ordinary congress yesterday at the Regency Suites Hotel, resulting in the congress being scheduled to reconvene in 45 days.

The reconvening of the congress to the later date was the result of a decision by the president to settle the differences between those disgruntled associations, following the walking out and subsequent returning of six associations during the congress.

Those associations were the Georgetown Football Association (GFA), National Women’s Football Association (NWFA), Guyana Football Coaches Association (GFCA), Guyana Football Referees Council (GFRC), East Coast Football Association (ECFA) and East Demerara Football Association (EDFA)

The reason for the sudden withdrawal of the associations was due to the no-confidence motion against Matthias being discarded following a 9-9 voting stalemate. However, they would eventually return to accept the decision to reconvene the congress.

The decision to reconvene at a later date was welcomed by CONCACAF Director of Legal Affairs Marco Leal, FIFA developmental Officer Howard McIntosh and CONCACAF Legal Advisor Bruce Blake, who acted in the capacity of observers.

McIntosh in an invited comment said that while he is disappointed at the outcome, he hopes that a resolution to the conflict can be found in the interest of the sport.

Due to the decision, the election for the vacant posts of the two vice presidents was not done while the report of the federation’s forensic audit for the period January 1998-December 2012 was also not discussed.

Prior to the reconvening of the meeting, the genesis of the confusion occurred when GFA General Secretary Odinga Lumumba moved a motion to have the no-confidence motion against the president moved up in the agenda of congress.

However, the no-confidence motion which was filed by the EBFA and seconded by the ECFA, was deemed by some sections of the GFF congress through Article 26 of the body’s constitution, not to have properly followed the protocols required of a filing motion.

This was due to the EBFA no-confidence motion not having a description of why it is being filed against the GFF boss, which is one of the main criteria’s for submitting motions. The aforesaid correspondence neither had a letterhead nor returning address.

It was then decided following a lengthy debate between sections of the gathering that a vote should be utilised to decide if the motion should be entertained at the Congress.

However, this would lead to further confusion as the GFA, NWFA, GFCA, GFRC, ECFA and EDFA challenged the voting legitimacy of Upper Demerara Football Association (UDFA), Bartica Football Association (BFA) and Essequibo/Pomeroon Football Association (EPFA) and their representatives, due to their status as Interim Management Committees (IMC).

These six bodies contended that due to the three’s status as IMC’s, they should not be able to vote during the process.

They would also question the legitimacy of the GFF electoral committee which comprised of Joseph Harmon, Euclin Gomes, Charles Corbin and Dawn Holder, stating that the body is unconstitutional and cannot decide who can and can’t vote.

This eventually led to electoral committee choosing to leave the congress, stating through its Chairman Harmon that it didn’t not want to be seen as an unconstitutional body.

However, the GFF president’s copy of minutes from a November 2010 special meeting, provided evidence to refute this assertion, showing that the Essequibo IMC did in fact vote as part of a 10 man body during the ratification of the GFF constitution at that said meeting.

This novel piece of information would lead to further discord amongst the gathering as they jostled back and forth to justify their respective views.

However the eventual resulting voting process would lead to 9-9 split amongst the 19 eligible delegates as each association exclusive of the women’s, coaches and referees were allowed two votes each. These three entities due to their affiliation status were allowed one vote each.

The GFA, ECFA, EDFA, GFCA, GFRC and NWFA voted in favour of recognizing the motion while the UDFA, BFA, Berbice Football Association, West Demerara Football Association (WDFA) and EPFA voted against, with one member of the WDFA abstaining.

With a clear position unable to be achieved with regards to the motion due to a second 9-9 stalemate, the motion was eventually discarded. This resulted in the GFA, ECFA, EDFA, GFCA, GFRC and NWFA walking out of the congress.

GFRC President Alfred King during an invited comment after walking out the congress said that the motion was defeated by some illegal delegates of the respective IMC’s and that was a blatant breach of the constitution.

Lumumba said that a lot of atrocities were committed and that an appeal will be made to FIFA and CONCACAF for the matter to be resolved.