WDFA President Nigel Garraway, said that in keeping with his association’s mandate and following discussions with the body’s executives and general council, his association will be hosting an inaugural yearend tournament.
Speaking exclusively with Stabroek Sports, he said: “After discussions with the WDFA executives and General Council, we realized that West Demerara has a large following and we want to encourage more competition and more so in the end part of the year where there is large tourism and a lot of money spent”.
Garraway said “We want to capitalize on that. The players and administrators want a significant tournament being held at the end of the year for West Demerara. Mind you we don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. We just to promote the game and enhance the lives of the youths in football and we are working hard to get this off”.
According to Garraway “That is our position. We would plan that our finals will be held on Boxing Night. We don’t want any clashing with any GFF tournament. With regards to that we haven’t been notified by the GFF or given a fixture. We heard it earlier in the year that a tournament will be run off but we haven’t received anything formal by letter or any dates or fixtures to work with”.
“We haven’t received anything definite. If they should be a tournament, West Demerara will respect and honour the tournament of the GFF and our tournament will come second” he added. Asked if the WDFA will apply to the GFF for permission to host their event, Garraway said “If it is necessary we will make necessary application”.
Questioned if associations running their own yearend tourney is a good initiative, he said “I believe so, it encourages independence on the association. We are sitting waiting on subvention from the federation and you know the atmosphere right now. It will encourage the associations to play tournaments and make themselves financially better”.
He further said “Everyone should get a piece of the product being created. Everybody should get an opportunity to benefit from this yearend franchise. Each association should benefit and whatever benefits there is in participating with the GFF tournament, each association will also benefit from that”.
Quizzed if teams from outside the association will be allowed to participate in the event, he said “Presently we are looking at the West Demerara teams, but in the future if their schedule will allow them we would incorporate teams from outside West Demerara”.
“If every association will be hosting their yearend tournament, it will be difficult in that timeframe but we would want to have others from outside to enhance the tournament in the future” he said.
