Kashif and Shanghai Co-Director Aubrey Major, says the entity’s traditional yearend tourney will officially be moved to the Easter period, following the GFF Normalization Committee’s decision not to grant them permission to host their event this year.
The veteran promoters had signalled their intention of hosting their traditional yearend event by applying to the FIFA appointed body for permission.
However the Georgetown,Upper Demerara and West Demerara Football Associations had also applied for approval to host their individual tourneys during the same period. This resulted in a meeting on Monday November 24th between the committee and the respective associations to discuss the issue.
Following the conclusion of the forum, the committee through correspondence informed the Kashif and Shanghai Organization that permission will not be granted to them to host their event during that window, but to the respective associations.
Speaking exclusively to Stabroek Sports, Major said “The normalization committee wrote us a letter stating it not possible for us to get that time and that we should choose a next date. We have already written them, sent out our dates and it will most likely be in Easter. They have asked us to choose a next date and we have complied with all their regulations”.
Asked the reason behind the proposed move to a different time period, he said “We don’t want to be in conflict with the Normalization Committee. We are abiding by their rules and we don’t want to be seen as if we are coming to fight, we will abide with their decision”.
Questioned if the atmosphere or quality of the event would be affected in any way by the switch, Major declared “We will make the atmosphere better than in previous years. We believe we can do it better in every way and make the conditions better for the players”.
He further declared “We got the ability and we have the people around us to do it. Everything we organize we are the best at it and in order to do that, you have to get people around you who are committed to football like us”.
“We are solely responsible for the highest quality of football in Guyana. We bought in Jamal Shabazz and sent many players overseas for international contrasts. We are wholly and solely responsible for the rise of Guyanese football and we are prepared to work with committee to see football get back to where it was”, he added. (Duncan Saul)
