Guyana Football Federation (GFF) President Wayne Forde has declared that the GFF has no intention of disclosing the salary of the new head coach of the Golden Jaguars or the names of the short-listed candidates interviewed for the post.
Forde was at the time speaking at the SleepIn Hotel and Casino, Church Street, last Thursday, during the presentation of the new Golden Jaguars head coach, English born and former Jamaica International, Michael Johnson.
When Forde was asked if a special committee had scrutinized the applicants, and if so, who were the members of the panel, Forde disclosed, “There was an interview panel that was put together by the executive committee. We would have short-listed six candidates from the pool of 200 that we got. We conducted two rounds of interviews that brought us to coach Johnson. We are not going to reveal the members that participated in the process, but it was a body that was put together to conduct the interview after the candidates were shortlisted. It was a local body.”
Forde also did not reveal where the interviews were conducted. Questioned if any local coaches or former overseas players were among the six individuals short-listed, Forde revealed, “They were local interviews for the job. As you know the employment process is confidential between the employee and employer, and unless we have authorization from those candidates we cannot reveal who they were because for some people it probably might be a bit harmful to their career to have them not succeed in obtaining a job with the GFF, so we are sensitive about these things.”
He added, “We don’t know of any case or any instance in the past where a country would have revealed the shortlisted candidates for a job. We are not aware of that, but in terms of the HR [Human Resource] policy of the federation, we do not make public applicants for positions. Once someone is hired and they have to be presented to the public because it’s a national nature of our business, then that has to be done as we are doing here today.”
However, Forde’s aforementioned statement illustrates his complete lack of knowledge and understanding in this area, where it is the basic standard for any FIFA affiliated nation to release the short-list of candidates vying for the head coach position.
The Italian [current FIFA ranking 19th], Welsh [18th], Brazilian [2nd], Egyptian [45th], Ghanaian [47th], Nigerian [48th] and United Arab Emirates (UAE) [78th] Football Associations just to name a few, all released the names of the short-listed candidates when they were searching for head coaches.
On February 28th 2018, the renowned American weekly magazine Sports Illustrated reported, “Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is one of three coaches who could fill in the vacant spot in the Italy manager’s chair in a few months. Italian federation vice-commissioner Alessandro Costacurta has confirmed that either the Blues manager, Roberto Mancini or Luigi Di Biagio will be named Italy manager in June, also ruling everyone else out.”
The article quoted Costacurta, “We plan on appointing the new coach by June. Conte, Mancini or Di Biagio? These are the names, and it won’t be anyone else,” Costacurta told reporters at Italy’s training camp outside Florence.”
The Guardian newspaper on January 2018 carried the following announcement; “The Football Association of Wales (FAW) is expected to announce Chris Coleman’s successor in the coming days after completing a managerial search that saw Ryan Giggs, Osian Roberts, Craig Bellamy and Mark Bowen interviewed for the post that has been vacant since November. The interviews took place on Thursday (Jan 11), overseen by Jonathan Ford, the FAW chief executive, and it is anticipated that a decision will be made quickly, with Giggs currently the front runner.”
On October 8th 2017, on Sport360.com, it was announced, that Ex-Portugal coach Paulo Bento and inspirational Peru tactician Ricardo Gareca were featuring prominently on a three-man shortlist which the UAE Football Association had given the “green light” for negotiations to begin with.
According to the article said, “A three-man panel, led by Vice-president Abdullah Nasser Al Junaibi, have studied more than 20 candidates since Edgardo Bauza’s shock defection to World Cup 2018 qualifiers Saudi Arabia last month. This process to identify the person who will lead the nation on home soil at the 2019 Asian Cup is now set to step up a gear. Bento, 48, is unattached following an acrimonious split from Greece’s Olympiacos in March – he previously led Portugal from 2010-14, a semi-final exit at Euro 2012 providing the highlight. Well-travelled former Argentina forward Gareca, 59, has moved Peru to the verge of making the World Cup for the first time since 1982.”
“The UAE FA are prepared to bide their time while qualifying for next summer’s tournament [2018 World Cup] concludes in Europe, Africa and South America. This approach could see Morocco’s Herve Renard, 49, emerge as a strong contender”, the article added.
On July 8th 2016, the Premium Times stated, “The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has put former Ethiopian coach, Tom Sainfiet, Super Eagles’ caretaker coach, Salisu Yusuf, and Frenchman Paul Le Guen, who once coached Cameroon, on a shortlist of candidates for the position of Super Eagles’ Head Coach.”
The article further said, “On Friday at the Glass House, the NFF Technical and Development Committee pored over more than 20 applications before cutting the list to three. Among those who showed interest in coaching the three–time African champions are Giovanni Solinas, Saintfiet, Hey Antoine, Mark Wotte, Yusuf, Ernesto Paulo Calvinho, Dorian Marin, Le Guen, Miodrag Jesic, Perry Hansen, Ove Pedersen, Adebayo Lateef Kola, Sylvanus Okpala, Peter Ijeh, Vladimir Petrovic-Pizon, Lodewijk de Kruif, Kenichi Yatsuhashi, Bjorn Frank Peters and Ricki Herbert.”
On August 11th 2015, Goal.com reported, “Brazil’s Technical Coordinator Gilmar Rinaldi has revealed the names that made the CBF’s five-man shortlist for the Brazil job following the shock 7-1 defeat to Germany in last year’s World Cup.”
The article further said, “Dunga was eventually handed a second chance with the Selecao after having previously led Brazil between 2006 and 2010. And Gilmar has named the four unlucky candidates after he, then-president Jose Maria Marin and current chief Marco Polo Del Niro opted for Dunga.”
The article quoted Gilmar, who was addressing ESPN Brazil, “The decision was made together after I arrived at Marin’s house with a list of five names: Tite, Marcelo Oliveira, Dunga, Muricy Ramalho and Abel Braga.”
On February 2015, the Ahramonline.com website posted the following annoucement, “The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) will announce the shortlist of candidates for the national job on Sunday. The five candidates are French managers Herve Renard and Alan Giresse, Belgian George Leekens, German Uli Stielike and Dutch Franklin Rijkaard.”
On November 30th 2010, according to the sporting website VibeGhana.com, “The Ghana Football Association today announced that five coaches have been shortlisted for the position of head coach for the Senior National Team, the Black Stars. The FA’s Search Committee shortlisted two local and three foreign coaches: Herbert Addo of Aduana Stars, Ghanaian born former France captain Marcel Desailly, Serbian Goran Stevanovic, Portuguese Humberto Jesus Coelho and German-Turkish Can Vanli, current Black Stars interim coach Akwasi Appiah is missing on the list.”
The aforementioned information should raise eyebrows as to why Guyana, ranked 182nd out of the 211 FIFA members would choose not to disclose the short-listed candidates, when traditional giants and emerging forces routinely follow this protocol.
When quizzed how much the GFF is paying the former Reggae Boyz international, Michael Johnson for his services, Forde said, “I think we all can be honest with each other that is simply something that you just don’t throw out into the public. It’s along the lines of the [Human Resources] HR Policy, I think most companies will operate that way, the federation is no different. We are not at liberty to discuss the contractual details to that extent with the public.”
Pressed as to why the contractual details of renowned managers such as former Arsenal tactician Arsene Wenger and current Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho were public knowledge and not the recent Golden Jaguars recruit, Forde declared, “The exception to the rule is that Arsene Wenger and Arsenal may have their rules and the GFF has its rules, and that is the exception.”
He further added, “Our rules and our internal human resource policy is that we do not disclose the compensation package of our employees’ period. The contract that we have with our employees have confidentiality clauses, it would be up to the discretion of that employee to make those information public.”
When informed by one media operative that former Jaguar head coach, Trinidadian Jamaal Shabazz’s financial details were released publicly, Forde fired back, “I was not the president when Mr. Shabazz’s details were made public, so you might have to speak to those persons. I run a tighter ship.”
Quizzed how the GFF will be able to afford this appointment given its considerable debt, Forde declared, “As a businessman let me explain to you how business operates. A company being in debt simply does not stop operating. Debt is compartmentalized, scheduled and it’s serviced. A company has to establish what is called an operational budget and your income and your cash flow is what addresses your operational budget.”
According to Forde, “We have established our operational budget and we are operating the football federation including the appointment of all our key personnel at the national level within the confines of our operational budget. While we do have debt, debt is inherent in any organization and we do have a strategy to resolve those debts overtime.”
