Guyana Football Federation (GFF) President Wayne Forde has declared that the participation of Alpha United and Slingerz FC in the 2017 CFU Club Championship will be decided by CONCACAF.
Slingerz FC and Alpha United earned the right to represent Guyana at the regional tournament after finishing first and second, respectively, in the inaugural edition of the GFF Stag Beer Elite League.
However the two clubs along, with Pele and Georgetown Football Club (GFC) have boycotted the 2016/2017 season of the league, owing to disputes with the federation surrounding the tournament’s expansion.
Forde during a press conference held at the GFF’s headquarters in Section-K, Campbellville said, “The participation of the two teams, Alpha United and Slingerz is a decision that will be taken by CONCACAF. It is not a decision that the federation is expected to make because it’s not a GFF Tournament, so we await the decision of CONCACAF on that”.
Asked if sanctions will be meted out to the clubs for their non-participation in the league, Forde said, “In terms of sanctions being meted out against the clubs by the GFF, we have written to the clubs formally and indicated to them that their actions have affected their standing with the federation. Beyond that it is not expected that any further action will be taken”.
According to Forde “The board will be meeting early in the new year to discuss and figure out exactly what pathway we can show these clubs in terms of their reintegration into the sport but again in any resolution you need to have a willingness on both sides and ultimately what we want is to have the players, which is our major concern”
“They are too many players being denied the opportunity to play football and it certainly doesn’t help them or Guyana, because some of our best players are within those teams so we are going to be identifying a course of action that we think is necessary for the reintegration at whatever level they need to return at, but that will be done early in the new year” he added.
Forde further revealed “There is no one walking back into anything, ultimately we need to show these clubs a path to reintegrate themselves into national football at whatever level the path will lead them to”.
He further added that exclusive of bans and suspensions, “They are other measures that are not necessarily bans and suspensions, I am not going to get into the specifics at this moment but the clubs have been written to and we are awaiting their response before any further action is taken”.
