With the spread of the Covid-19 virus increasing locally, Adrian Giddings, secretary of the West Demerara Football Association (WDFA), has confirmed that the current situation has thwarted all the entity’s developmental plans.
Speaking exclusively with Stabroek Sport, Giddings said, “It has a major setback as we were expected to resume on the 11th. We were supposed to continue our senior league and U11 tournament. We also wanted to do the U15 and U17 tournaments. I spoke to various business entities as it relates to the youth tournaments so basically all of that should have started this month end but due to the threat of the Covid-19 we had to rethink our plans and push everything back for the safety of our players and their families.”
He added, “Basically all our plans are up in the air, everything is at a standstill. We are waiting to see the silver lining, to know when we can go and play. Every time I see the players I am asked when will we get football and when is the next game and I honestly can’t answer them. Hopefully soon we can resume. By God’s grace, hopefully by the end of June, once God smiles on us and saves us from this pandemic we should be able to start again.”
Meanwhile, WDFA Committee Member Travis Bess, echoed similar sentiments regarding the current state of affairs in the region.
Bess who is also a National Youth Football coach stated, “The league took a break in the Christmas period for the GFF Year End Tournament and we were supposed to start back in February but due to the elections it was affected because most of the grounds were used as polling stations. Then, after that, the current Covid-19 situation has stopped us because we have to observe social distancing. We are hoping that it blows over so we can get the football up and running. West Demerara had a lot of plans in place for this year.”
He added:“We were expected to stage a knockout tournament and it was to feature all the teams in the jurisdiction and start on March 8th and finish on Easter Sunday which would have been the 12th of April. The Covid-19 definitely stopped that. We were in preparation mode for both tournaments. At least by May month-end the hope is for the situation to improve so that we can play. The West Demerara teams look forward for these projects. There is a lot of money invested amongst the various teams.”
