Despite only days remaining to the September 18th start of the Elite League, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) has yet to announce the entity that will run the tournament’s second edition.
The lucrative management contract was secured via a public tender process by longstanding football promoters, the Kashif and Shanghai Organization, to manage the inaugural edition.
This process occurred under the Clinton Urling led Normalization Committee.
The other competing bid was Alex Graham’s Tagman.
According to sources close to the federation, the GFF hasnot issued a tender for the administration of the championship.
The sources also said that while a review process was initiated to evaluate the performance of the management team following the expiration of their contract in May, the federation might opt for a different direction this time due to financial reasons.
While fiscal information from the first season has not been forthcoming from the federation, it is widely thought that the tournament was run at a loss.
“The GFF is considering the possibility of using the competing clubs to manage the match day operations of the tournament. The GFF would pay the clubs to utilize their personnel to run the games, with the aim of giving more money going into the clubs.
“A management staff could still be commissioned but it might be watered down and not like before,” the sources said.
Asked what would be the next step if clubs opted against managing the league due to the lack of personnel, the sources said the possibility exists that the GFF could utilize the previous management team to run the league.
Prior to the start of the Elite League Genesis section, the GFF issued an invitation to tender on July 29th 2015 in the Kaieteur News.
According to the advertisement, the successful applicant would acquire the official management rights of the event and would be responsible, under the guidance of the federation for the match-day operations of the event.
In terms of the criteria for the tender, the advertisement said that an overview of the company must be submitted along with a comprehensive cost proposal and evidence of previous work in the organization and running of football tournaments. The submission deadline for the tenders was August 10th of the same year.
