Dormancy is a period in an organism’s life cycle when growth and development are temporarily halted. This description can also be applied to entities and as such, perfectly illustrates the current state of the Guyana Futsal Association, a body created by the Normalization Committee of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) on October 15th, 2016.
Relative newcomer to Guyana’s political sporting landscape, Henry Chase, proprietor of the Chase Academy, was elected President, with Kenrick Noel, Mark Younge, Andrew Major and Rawle Adams voted in as, 1st Vice-President, 2nd Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary respectively.
Following the ‘Electoral Congress’, Normalization Committee boss, Clinton Urling, said the body has the huge task of bringing the format to an organized state as well as developing and expanding the game.
Fast forward to present time. Nothing has occurred that resembles an iota of development, structure and expansion on the part of the Futsal association.
This body, which at times seems to be operating in a clandestine manner, has to the best of one’s knowledge, failed to carry out its mandate. Where is the structure that was promised and expected following the entity’s creation?
Where are the Futsal Clubs that were expected to be created so the game can be expanded and popularized? Where are the programmes to sensitize the viewership to the intricacies of this format?
Where are the initiatives that should have been implemented for the format to be reintroduced into the school system? The answers to those questions are akin to the actual programmes and policies, non-existent.
Simply put, the association is devoid of any vision and seems nothing more than a tool created to increase the constituency for GFF presidential ambitions. How else can one justify the lack of sanctioned tournaments to develop the sport?
It is also mind boggling that the local governing body, the GFF, remains quiet on the subject matter. After all, the body falls under its purview and must follow its directive.
If the GFF is honestly focused on development of the sport at all levels like it preaches in its daily press releases, then it will work with the Futsal association to ensure programmes and policies are created and implemented, similar to the process that was undertaken with the Guyana Beach Football Association, another recently created establishment.
One wouldn’t want to believe that the GFF is possibly turning a blind eye to the lack of development on the Futsal association’s part is politically motivated.
Maybe it’s time for another Interim Management Committee (IMC) to govern the affairs of that association until a competent executive committee, which has the interest of the sport at heart is elected.
Football continues its long tradition of garnering the wrong attention on local soil, with many stakeholders of the sport solely focused on political and personal gains. Just like in a school’s classroom, attendance is acknowledged via a simple word, ‘present’, and eventually recorded. Futsal Association? The silence is deafening.
