Experienced football assessor and former referee, Abdulla ‘Zico’ Hamid, has stated that the Linden arm of the Guyana Football Referees Council (GFRC) was kept in the dark concerning any Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Electoral Congress, which led to the election of Tyrone Tyrell as the entity’s President.
This was stated during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport. According to the former FIFA referee, “Linden had no idea of the election. We were not informed about such.”
Former referee, Tyrone Tyrell, was elected unopposed as GFRC President, when the entity staged its electoral congress on July 21 at the National Training Centre (NTC), Providence, East Bank Demerara.
The other members of the new executive are: Vice-presidents Venton Mars and Lenval Peart; Secretary, Utinde Allen; Treasurer, Colin Abel; Assistant Secretary/Treasurer, Kenisha Prescott; and Committee Member, Osafo Dos Santos.
Asked if the Linden arm of the GFRC is supportive of the current referee administration, Hamid replied, “We cannot support someone that we have no knowledge of.”
The legitimacy of the election has been questioned in several circles, with numerous sources close to the referees’ fraternity querying if a legitimate quorum was in attendance at the forum.
When questioned during an earlier interview with Stabroek Sport that was published on August 5, if the election was constitutionally correct and if a legitimate quorum was achieved, Tyrell responded that the process was guided and supervised by the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), and that the local governing body will have to provide that information.
While unable to confirm the actual number of referees who attended the AGM, Tyrell did reveal that officials from the Berbice zone were not in attendance, while only one referee from the Linden arm attended. Interestingly, that official, who originally hails from the mining town of Linden, was elected as a member of the new executive, as the Assistant Secretary/Treasurer.
Tyrell further explained that primarily referees from Georgetown attended the forum, adding that the GFF President Wayne Forde was in attendance alongside Head of Member Associations, Franklyn Wilson, who served as the presiding officer for the election.
The GFRC had been dormant since 2018, and has suffered two prior failed congresses owing to a lack of a quorum.
