The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) has finally paid off the remaining financial debt to the players for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup and the 2017 International Friendly against South Asian opponent Indonesia.
This was revealed by a source close to the federation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. According to the source, the players from the Gold Cup sojourn were paid the remaining sum which was reportedly US$150 each.
This was the second debt payment done by the federation. The GFF in the month of June, initially paid off a significant amount of the outstanding CONCACAF Gold Cup bonus monies to the players. The six players were paid in the region of US$310 each of the total owed for the continental championship.
According to the source the payment took place on July 24th and was done by Team Manager Rawle Adams. The 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup was staged in the United States of America between the timeline of June 15th-July 7th.
Guyana lost to the host nations USA 4-0 on June 18th before going down to Panama 4-2 on June 22nd. They would end their campaign with a 1-1 draw with Caribbean rival Trinidad and Tobago on June 26th.
Similarly, the outstanding money for the Indonesia match was also paid to the 11 local players who made the journey. The source disclosed that the players were given in the region of US$200 each for the fixture. This amounted to monies owed for per diem during the trip, which occurred more than 910 days ago.
The payment of the Indonesia debt also occurred on July 24th and was also done by Adams. The Golden Jaguars contested an international friendly against hosts Indonesia which ended 2-1 favour of the latter on November 25th 2017.
The GFF is yet to issue a release confirming the payment of the monies to the players for the two events. Efforts to contact the GFF for a comment proved futile. Several calls to the cellular phone of GFF General Secretary Ian Alves went unanswered up to press time.
Meanwhile, a player, who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed the payment. The player during brief remarks, stated that he is grateful that the financial debt is finally settled despite the lengthy wait. The player added that the payment comes at a timely period given the current Covid-19 pandemic.
“The GFF didn’t do anything for the national players so it makes sense that they would have paid the monies now. At least they are supposed to do something for the national players who are locally based given the situation. They have not reached out to anyone to find out what is going on or how things are going on. Right now everything shuts down, even if you are a worker you will be out of a job once you are not essential. For the national players they should have done that.”
