With structures currently being put in place for the first ever virtual ‘Skill Thrill Freestyle Football Festival’, tournament coordinating team, the Right Start Foundation of Linden, has commenced the process of securing membership to the World Freestyle Football Association (WFFA).
This was disclosed by the entity’s Executive Director of Administration and Finance Collis Gifth during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport yesterday. According to the former Upper Demerara Football Association (UDFA) President, the entity has decided to seek affiliation to the world governing body, as an avenue to acquire recognition and support in making the tournament a bigger success.
He added, “Freestyle is pretty much something new to Guyana and while most of the players practice indirectly, it’s not a mainstream sport in Guyana. While I was doing my research to acquire more details about the format, I recognised that there is a world governing body and that they stage events in an organized and regulated manner. Looking at their structure and judging criteria and perquisites in terms of affiliation, I thought it would be good to engage them not only for their blessing but also for support and guidance to make the event a greater success.”
Gifth further revealed, “I checked on their website and came across the contact information for executive members and I wrote Mr. Martin Alvear Rodrigues, he is a network manager within the world federation with responsibility for South America and Central America because they have different individuals with different responsibilities.”
The event will open to individuals as young as 16 years old, who are residing in Guyana. Each participant, following registration, must submit a video no longer than three minutes in duration displaying their freestyle ability. Edited videos will not be accepted by the judging committee which will be identified prior to the start of the event.
The 10 best freestylers will advance to the second round which will be in person. The grand finale will also be contested during the second round. Winner of the event will pocket $100,000 and a trophy, with the runner-up pocketing $50,000 and the corresponding accolade. The other participants who made the final 10, will take home $10,000 each. Participants will be judged on four categories. They are Creativity & Versatility, Trick Execution, Acrobatics and Musicality.
Gifth elaborated, “Having written to him, he responded positively and was very excited to know that someone is pursuing a freestyle programme in Guyana. He actually indicated a few years ago he was trying to get someone in Guyana to start a programme and is happy that the Right Start Foundation has taken the initiative to actually start a programme and expressed from his personal perspective every form of support and that he would engage the overall executive for their blessing and guidance.”
According to Gifth, the acquisition of membership to the global entity would provide the ideal platform to develop the emerging sport, noting that the WFFA’s support during the tournament fast tracked the process for eventual affiliation.
“I think it would really help in a big way in terms of advancing the sport. In most cases for any other disciplines and when trying to get affiliation, it does take a long process, you have to look at developmental programmes but based on what I observe, once they can come on board with us, it would jump us four steps ahead of anything. More so he was impressed with how we put together the entire programme and he will encourage the other executives to reach out and engage us”, he said.
