The two-fold litmus test in the form of the recent ‘Bounce Back’ mini tournament proved to be successful and now the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) plans to move forward confidently with plans to stage more events amid the pandemic.
This is according to President of the GFF, Wayne Forde. Said Forde, “The tournament gave an opportunity for players from the national team to play some football but also for the national federation to give itself a chance to implement new safety protocols.”
Forde told this publication, “The fact that we were able to bring football back to the pitch, we were able to prove to ourselves that we can do it under very challenging circumstances and do it well in a safe manner.”
The two-day, four-team, ‘Bounce Back’ tournament, which was staged at the National Stadium kicked off on December 29 and concluded on New Year’s Day with the GT All Stars needling the Linden All Stars one-nil in the final. It was the first organized football tournament staged here since sports was shut down last March.
Forde disclosed that the federation was able to implement safety protocols outlined by UEFA in order to stage a safe and successful competition.
“The event was part of the ongoing project we are doing with UEFA. The UEFA Bounce Back Project is a project that guides national federations to the responsible and safe return to activities on the field. There are new ways of conducting football amid a pandemic and we found out how well we could implement those ways during the tournament.”
Forde added “All of the players, the staff and the officials that were directly related to the game were tested (for COVID-19) and the report that was submitted to me, the tests came out negative for each one of them.”
The GFF head then disclosed that he looks forward to working closer with the partners of the federation to continue to the same vein in 2021.
“Everyone was eagerly anticipating the return of football and while it was only two days, I think it is precursor for 2021. So we will be working with all of our partners, the Government of Guyana being one of the most important partners of the GFF. We will also be working with the Kashif and Shanghai Organization to pull off many other events along this partnership framework.
God willing the public health situations improves in 2021 and I can assure the general public that we will have more events like this with a similar quality” he concluded.
