Former Upper Demerara Football Association (UDFA) executive Jermaine Figueira is questioning the decision of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) to facilitate elections for the post of president of the UDFA.
Figueira, during an exclusive interview said, “I was shocked when I was made aware of an election conducted for the presidency of the association several days ago after they had expressed a vote of no confidence against the former president [Sharma Solomon] several weeks earlier in the year.”
According to Figueira, “Shocked primarily because the club I associate myself with Netrockers FC was not invited to the election and more particularly the election of the person as president. This individual was part of Dr. Haynes and Solomon administration and choose to resign from both. The question therefore is why would the association repose such confidence in him as president?”
Terrence Mitchell was elected to the top post of the UDFA following an electoral congress staged on May 13th at the Linden Enterprise Network (LEN) Building.
Williams replaced Interim President and current UDFA first Vice-President Claude Williams, who had served in the capacity following the no-confidence motion enacted against Solomon on April 23rd.
The eight clubs who reportedly attended the meeting, voted 7-0 in favour of Mitchell, with one voter abstaining. Supervising the forum were GFF Deputy General Rennella Bourne and Executive Committee member Keith O’Jeer. Efforts to contact O’Jeer for a comment proved futile.
Meanwhile, Figueira declared, “Secondly what is the rush to elect a president of the association when election for all office holders is a mere three months away? The first vice-president could have acted in that capacity until such election. When the then president Mr. Colin Class was embroiled in the FIFA scandal, Mr. Franklin Wilson acted as president until the election.
“It is not my intention to come off rude or impolite but I am of the firm belief that the UDFA lacks leadership and vision and the non-promotion of football at all levels on a consistent basis is testimony to this reality. August elections will present an opportunity to fill this gap and I’m optimist it will bring about this needed change,” he concluded.
