Guyana Football Federation (GFF) President Wayne Forde yesterday expressed regret at several COVID-19 guidelines being broken as well as the overfilling of the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall during the final of the GFF/Kashif and Shanghai Futsal Championships.
Sparta Boss defeated Bent Street 5-3 on penalty kicks in the final Saturday night to bring the curtain down on three year-end tournaments organized exclusively by the GFF and the K&S Organisation.
According to reports, spectators far exceeded the seating capacity of the venue which led Jermaine Figueira, Opposition Member of Parliament and Shadow Minister of Sports, to call the event a COVId-19 super spreader.
Figueira was critical of the government and the Task Force for giving the organisers the green light to stage their activities which included a women and men’s super 16 championships.
“What is most concerning and very worrying is that while other groups are refused permission to hold similar events, the PPP/C is willing to risk the lives of Guyanese to permit a group that supports its political agenda to host a super-spreader event amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In our view, no group should be given permission at this time, but the government seems committed to enriching its elites, family, friends and cronies at the expense of the lives of the people of Guyana. The government needs to end this practice and not politicize COVID-19,” said Figueira.
However, Forde, reading from a prepared statement during a press conference held at the federation’s section-K Campbellville headquarters yesterday, said, “I want to be very clear that the GFF has always put the wellbeing of its community first. We continue to place the highest value of consideration on the safety of our players, officials, coaches, fans, and community of stakeholders. It is, therefore, with great regret and sadness that we witnessed what took place at the final of the Futsal tournament last weekend.”
He added, “Despite the obvious difficulty of controlling such a large, unexpected number of people in a small space, it was clearly wrong and unacceptable that an over-capacity crowd was allowed entry into the building. This created an unnecessary hazard to public health and runs against everything we stand for at the GFF.”
The final night of the event saw the breaking of several COVID-19 guidelines despite the presence of several members of the National Taskforce being in attendance.
Among the transgressions committed by the spectators were the failure to wear masks and the absence of social distancing. Also in attendance were Prime Minister and head of the Task Force, Mark Phillips, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Charles Ramson Jr., and Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill.
According to Forde, the GFF and its partner, the Kashif and Shanghai Organization, must take responsibility for what transpired at the event’s final.
“Let me be clear that the GFF and its partner Kashif & Shanghai take full responsibility for this outcome. We have launched a thorough internal investigation to understand what went wrong and why, and how this can be addressed in the appropriate way,” said Forde.
He, however, noted that barring the incident, the three tournaments staged by the federation were conducted in compliance with COVID-19 protocols and guidelines.
“It is of vital importance that we set an example to others and I would like to emphasize strongly that, barring this single event, the three year-end tournaments took place in full accordance with the regulations and in a safe and secure environment. We would like to thank the vast majority of fans who cooperated with us by adhering to the rules, guidelines and COVID-19 protocols.
“Sport must be allowed to continue as long as the conditions allow it. In football, in particular, Guyana must not be left behind if we are to continue to catch up with our regional rivals after so many decades of poor investment and slow development. However, this cannot come at the expense of public health. The GFF will continue to work with the authorities and Task Force to host football tournaments in the safest and securest environments possible. We will now draw a line under the regrettable events of last week, learn the lessons from what has been an incredible month of football, and look to the coming year,” said Forde.
