The Guyana Football Federation (GFF), in 2019 will strike a collaboration with the Denmark Football Association to aid in the development of the sport locally.
GFF’s President Wayne Forde made the disclosure to Stabroek Sports during a recent exclusive interview where he laid out a comprehensive plan of action to take both the level and interest of football in Guyana to higher heights.
“I have been in discussion with the Denmark Football Federation for close to nine months now,” Forde remarked while adding; “I’ve actually met the Denmark President during a summit in Nigeria, and we have actually been working on areas of collaboration, and I’m going to announce right now that in the spring of 2019 the Denmark Federation will be visiting Guyana… to sign an MOU on Development,” the GFF boss disclosed.
Touching on the nuances of the Understanding, without giving too much away, Forde assured that it would cover a broad cross-section of developmental areas.
“The MOU will have coaching education, referee’s development, professional football, sports science and all the key areas of football development,” he further articulated, noting that Guyana can only benefit from the technical ‘knowhow’ of Denmark who has proven their worth on the international stage.
The Danes, he remarked are also excited about what’s on the horizon.
Exciting as that may seem, the anticipated collaboration with the Danish, according to the President, is not the only one the Federation is pursuing as they seek to break out of the traditional mould of sports administration.
“Investment is not the only strategy we are pursuing, [building] relationships is the other strategy,” Forde stressed.
“We are one of the oldest Federations in our Confederation, and we have never made any strategic manoeuvres to connect with what is arguably the number one football Nation in the world [Brazil], we are neighbours, separated by a very narrow river at some points.
“You would have seen recently, locally based national players with a few injections of overseas players, spent two weeks in Rio a few weeks ago and that followed on the heels of a visit I made to Brazil where I was able to develop networks and relationships in Brazil… we have partners inside of Brazil who are pursuing some of the discussions on how we can integrate coaching education… player exchanges. These things are being discussed,” Forde announced as part of the Federation’s Strategic Agenda.
Adamant about the future of Football under his vision and leadership, the businessman is also optimist about the completion of the National Football Training Centre which will act as a supplementary mechanism to complement the Federation’s development policy objectives.
Under the FIFA Forward Programme, the facility will have features of a stadium and will comprise an artificial turf, dormitories, gym, pool and other modern amenities to aid in the advancement of grassroots, female and youth development.
