Guyana Rush Saints and Gladiators secured opening night victories in the Men’s and Women’s Division respectively, when the Rupununi Football Association (RFA) Champions League Tournament started on Sunday.
This was disclosed in an official release from the Guyana Football Federation (GFF). Staged at the Culvert City sports ground, Gladiators defeated Tabatinga 3-2 in the Women’s encounter, while Guyana Rush Saints crushed Tabatinga 3-1 in the Men’s showdown. The release further revealed that 28 Men and Women teams will compete in the tournament, with the final scheduled for May 30th 2020.
According to the correspondence, GFF President Wayne Forde, Mayor of Lethem John Macedo and RFA President Ryan Farias were in attendance at the launch of the tournament, which officially kicks off the 2020 season of the RFA.
“I think when you consider where football infrastructure was four years ago when I began to visit this region strictly for football business, there has been tremendous improvement over those four years. As I understand it, most of the grounds are not lit, there are goals being constructed, there are plans to do work and improve the surfaces; so all of this will impact on improving the quality of football,” Forde was quoted as saying.
“You guys have played football at every level, both male and female and that is a testimony to the commitment of your president and his executive committee but more so to you the players, because as I understand it, it is not easy for many of you to travel from the long distances that you live to come and play. I also understand today that it’s a huge cost associated with travel to get to the various venues. We are examining the possibilities of sourcing some means of transportation which will reduce the huge cost associated [with] team travel across the region. My message here today is clear – you do, we do,” he added.
The GFF president further stated that a new phase of the Academy Training Centre programme will commence shortly. “We will continue to fund the programme, we will train the coaches, we will pay the coaches, we will provide all the necessary materials and resources but the programme will be operated by the RFA Executive Committee and their appointed members. So I’m trusting that President Farias will do an excellent job in identifying the coaches that we will train over the next couple of years to deliver the quality of coaching that will have a long and lasting impact on football development across the region,” Forde said.
“We’ve been very impressed with the manner in which the RFA has been utilising the funds that we have been making available to them and the extent to which they have been giving account for it. I want to ask you guys to give your executive committee every measure of support that they need to keep football alive and to cause it to continue on the positive path of growth that we have seen over the past couple of years,” he added.
Meanwhile, Macedo said, “I am proud to stand here today to say one year ago, what we have here, we hadn’t. We will continue to work with you to have the facilities developed; I know also that you need a ground where you can play high end matches, where you can invite other senior teams to come and engage your teams. I promise you that I will work together with your leaders to have such a top facility.”
“I want to commend you for your efforts, for what you have been doing for football in this region,” he added.
Farias said, “We will continue to work with the relevant entities to ensure we are able to get better playing surfaces for you which will have an even greater positive impact on the quality of players we produce here. We are committed to work with Mayor Macedo, the Town Council and the GFF to achieve better for you. Continue to play hard, play strong, listen to your coaches; we have a long football season ahead of us, keeping working hard and we’ll achieve greater heights.”
