Chairman of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Normilisation Committee Clinton Urling said yesterday that the mandate of the FIFA appointed body will be to implement constitutional reform for the GFF and its affiliates while crafting a properly regulated electoral procedure.
Speaking at their first press conference yesterday at the GFF headquarters since their appointment, Urling said:“Our mandate is to design a new GFF constitution and help the associates to either reform or renew theirs.
“It is also to create an electoral process and oversee the next elections while managing the day-to-day affairs of the GFF,” he added.
He noted that the current GFF constitution has a lot of gray areas and uncertainty within and that reform is required.
“The GFF is at a pivotal moment, this represents a crossroad. We could either choose to do things like the past and allow discord to rule the day or choose change.
“This is a last-ditch effort by FIFA and all stakeholders should work so this does not fail. If this fails, FIFA will ban Guyana from international competition, we hope Guyana does not suffer this fate,” he added.
According to Urling the task to transform Guyana into a competitive force both regionally and internationally was not a simple one and a different methodology is required. “We should have one goal and one destiny,” he declared. Urling said that the committee will do the compulsory assessments to identify how the federation got to this juncture and will take the necessary action when the results are declared.
“We are a board of directors and it comes down to a strong secretariat and putting strong polices in place. We will not be guided by an ad hoc approach, once you have strong systems in place, the secretariat will run the operations.”
Asked if he expects the committee to be challenged by outside forces, Urling said:“Don’t believe you are hurting us, it’s Guyana and football they will be hurting. We are just a vessel and this is their (FIFA) office. I don’t anticipate that, if they disrupt there are rules by FIFA for that and decisions will come from there.” Quizzed when the committee will make a decision with regards to the now contentious national yearend events, he said “They are some applications, we will have to look them and then the committee will decide”.
Questioned if the body has intention of resuscitating the FIFA Goal Project, he said:“I don’t know much about it but it is one of the areas that the committee will move swiftly on. It is critical that the infrastructure of the sport must be at a certain level. It is integral that things are in place so our players and referees can operate at an optimal level”.
Queried if the committee will be releasing the information surrounding the forensic audit done by the former administration, Urling said:“We believe in transparency and once we get the results, we will make them available.
“The GFF has a lot of debt and don’t have much money to work with, so it’s a rebuilding process. We will be looking at creative ways to generate income but there will also be assistance from FIFA.”
Probed if the national sides will be competing during the reign of the committee, Urling said:“I can’t speak in specifics. We will have to do the assessment. For now, we will just play local football. Come next year it is to develop a plan of action.”
He, however said that he expects Guyana to be participating on the international scene next year.
The Normilisation Committee was setup by FIFA in discussion with CONCACAF after the GFF’s failure in having their annual congresss. This occurred due to the walking out of two consecutive congresses by several affiliates over the contention of voting rights for certain associations.
The other members of the body which was officially announced on Tuesday are Tariq Williams, Stuartt May, Karen Pilgrim and Rabindranauth Chandarpal.
The failure to hold the congress resulted in FIFA Head of Associations Primo Cavaro and CONCACAF Director of Legal Affairs Marco Leal declaring on October 11th upon their arrival to local shores, that the body will be formed to govern Guyana’s football for a period of 11 months. This period is expected to conclude on September of 2015.
The decision to setup up the committee led to President Christopher Matthias and his remaining executives being removed from office.
