Despite concluding the ‘Elite League’ on September 23rd, the Guyana Football Federation [GFF] is yet to pay the top four finishers their respective prize monies and the players, their match day stipends.
This information was revealed by a source close to one of the competing clubs.
“The GFF has not paid anything to the clubs. The clubs have not received a cent from them [the GFF] inclusive of prize monies. They also owe the players, the match day stipends for nine games, which is the entire second round of the league,” the source said.
“The GFF has yet to contact the clubs to say when the prize monies will be paid. They are silent and soon the players will be asking about their monies,” the source added.
Efforts by Stabroek Sport to contact the Federation for a response, proved futile. An email sent yesterday to GFF President Wayne Forde was unanswered up to press time. The questions posed to the GFF boss were, “Have the teams been paid their prize monies for the Elite League? If not, please state why and is there a timetable as to when the monies will be paid? Similarly, have the players received their match day stipends for the nine matches in the second round? If not, can you state when this will be paid?”
The GFF owes the top four finishers in excess of $8M in prize monies. Fruta Conquerors, the league winner, is owed $5M while the Guyana Defence Force, Den Amstel and Western Tigers are awaiting $2M, $1M and $500,000 respectively.
With regards to the match day stipends, each team is owed a total of $648,000. Each player from the 10 competing clubs’ 18-member roster is owed $36,000. This equates to $4,000 per match per player over the course of the nine second round fixtures.
In total, the GFF owes a mammoth $6,480,000 in match day fees. Overall, the Elite League top four finishers and clubs are owed in excess of $14M.
The aforementioned incident is a continuing issue for the Federation which has owed the competing clubs, millions of dollars in prize monies and match day stipends in previous football tournaments for several months.
