UEFA donation a watershed moment for the GFF

Footballers walking to training venues will soon be a thing of the past after the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) received a donation of two buses from the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).

The donation from UEFA, the world’s leading football confederation, came through their UEFA Assist Programme and, according to the GFF, the  two minibuses will be used to aid and strengthen the logistical and administrative capacity of the local entity.

Eva Pasquier, UEFA Head of International Relations said, “UEFA Assist Programme is proud to support Guyana Football Federation in their continuous effort to develop football in the country.

“When we learnt that there are young players walking for hours to play the game and then they walk back, the provision of the mini buses is just a perfect thing to do – bringing people and football together.”

This presentation of the vehicles took place at the federation’s headquarters and GFF President Wayne Forde, in delivering the feature remarks said, “The commissioning of these two buses today is a watershed moment for the GFF and is symbolic of our International Relations Strategy, which continues to bode well for the reputation of the Guyana Football Federation and Guyana as a Football Nation.”

He added: “These strategic partnerships are essential to our quest to acquire badly-needed football development resources along with technical and administration capacity.”

Forde, who said that he was humbled and grateful for the kind gesture expressed sincere gratitude to UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin for the generous contribution to the development of Guyana’s football.

“I wish to also thank Ms. Eva Pasquier and Mr. Howard McIntosh for working closely with me over the past year to consolidate the bilateral partnership between the GFF and UEFA. These buses will contribute to significant savings to the operation of the GFF Academy Training Centre (ATC) programme, which will allow us to fully implement to next phases of this groundbreaking National Youth Development Structure,” he said. McIntosh, CONCACAF and Caribbean Project Senior Manager said, “CONCACAF is proud to facilitate any collaborative efforts in the region to assist in the development of the beautiful game. This gift will help the GFF to continue its many programmes which have yielded success for the GFF and Guyana.”

Ian Greenwood, Technical Director of the federation said, “The acquisition of the team buses is a landmark achievement for the GFF and integral to the Academy Training Centre Programme. They will provide the logistical and transportation support for the Inter-Academy League and fixtures scheduled throughout 2020 and beyond. Vital quality control will be conducted across all the ATCs utilising this logistical support for our Coach Educators.”

He added, “The team buses will ensure clear alignment between strategy and our reality as we are now able to ensure that support and transportation is provided to our players to attend national team training and weekend camps at the GFF National Training Centre.”

According to UEFA, “The UEFA Assist, which was set up in 2017, provides support for the other confederations and their member associations in four specific areas – capacity building (football and operations), development of youth football, infrastructure projects and helping UEFA’s member associations to create cooperation programmes with associations from outside of Europe. UEFA Assist is an assistance programme that responds to the needs of national associations and confederations across the globe.”