Buxton United Secretary, Eton Moses, has challenged the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) to show via a constitutional matrix, how the proposed amendments that could be ratified at the August 27th congress, would improve governance and transparency of the entity.
Moses spoke to Stabroek Sport in an exclusive interview. According to Moses, “Recently, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) has sought to weaponise advice it requested from FIFA in defence of its objective in the constitutional reform process. Buxton United Football Club (BUFC) was singled out as political and its submission to the Constitutional Review Committee was subject to some form of assessment by persons/agencies outside of Guyana. It is against the aforementioned, that Buxton United FC has agreed to address the notion that independence of thought makes you the enemy at the GFF.” He added, “At the commencement of the process, the GFF membership was told that the review of the constitution was to get it aligned with CONCACAF and FIFA Statutes. The Members were further told that the process was to improve governance and transparency. BUFC sinned when it enquired of the GFF to say which were the specific articles in CONCACAF and FIFA Statutes that the proposed amendments to the GFF Constitution were mirroring. Can the GFF and its foreign counterpart please inform the GFF Members where in CONCACAF and FIFA Statutes it can be found that if a member is late for a Congress, he/she may be allowed to be part of the debate or may be allowed to vote. What improved governance and or transparency is this amendment aligned to?”
FIFA had confirmed that the recently concluded Statutes Revision Process of the GFF constitution is an ongoing exercise amongst its 211 member associations in a bid to improve governance and transparency.
According to the correspondence, FIFA Member Association Manager Sofia Malizia, stated, “One of FIFA ́s primary objectives is that all of its members shall comply with their obligations as provided in the FIFA Statutes. In this respect, GFF, as a member of FIFA and CONCACAF, must ensure that their statutes fully comply with the mandatory provisions and requirements contained in the Statutes of FIFA and CONCACAF. Furthermore, FIFA encourages all member associations to adopt additional principles of good governance and best practices in their statutes and regulations.”
She further stated, “In this context, the revision process which is being carried out with the GFF is something that FIFA is doing with the 211 member associations, and in particular, in the Caribbean, we have finished and we are carrying out the process in all the federations in due time. Consequently, we can confirm that a large number of members in the Caribbean region (and CONCACAF as a whole) are currently conducting Statutes revision processes as required by FIFA/CONCACAF”
The release did not specify or name any Caribbean member association that is currently undertaking the process.
However, Moses further declared, “BUFC’s other sin was exposing the content of some of the proposed amendments to the Constitution, in relation to the lack of material benefit that will be derived by the general membership of the GFF. The Members were told on 11/8/2022 that Caribbean countries were doing the same, but that is a general reply. Which Caribbean federation is presently using a review process to reduce its members’ rights in Congress? Name one. Trinidad is under FIFA management but is it presently doing as Guyana?”Moses implored the federation to explain what amendments were resultant from overseas intervention, adding that the line item of Matters Arising is a necessary tool of the membership for governance and transparency.
“The GFF can come clean by releasing to its members what amendments were derived locally and which were imposed. BUFC made public its views on what can improve governance and transparency at the GFF. Those proposals are second to none we have seen in 2022 and it bears no personal character trait. The intended beneficiary of Matters Arising on the agenda, are the members of Congress and that is a normal right in the 21st century. The GFF Congress is held 10-12 months apart and commitments made by the executives must allow members at the next Congress to get a progress report on whether the commitments were kept. That is where Matters Arising is important for improving governance and transparency.”
According to the administrator, the position of FIFA Member Association Manager Malizia that the minutes of a congress should not be discussed for a second time, is absolute nonsense.
“When the GFF relies on the Sofia Malizia position that, ‘minutes are a tangible record that should not be discussed a second time because they were properly discussed and recorded’, is supporting trash with a faint smell. It is self-serving analysis like these that the GFF executives use to rubber stamp the Congress. For example, if, at the last GFF Congress, the executive committed US$1,000 to each member, but at the next Congress no report is made on the status of the US$1000 committed to Members. What were the members to do? According to Sofia Malizia, the Membership must just see if the issue was mentioned in the minutes and vote for the minutes as correct. This is the nonsense that presently goes on at GFF Congresses…
“Hence, can the GFF and Sofia Malizia say which Article on transparency in the Statutes and Regulations of FIFA and Concacaf, would “Matters Arising” offend. Now that the GFF is ably assisted by Sofia Malizia to sell its constitutional review process; can the GFF please send a matrix of the governance benefits and the transparency benefits that the membership will derive from each of the proposed amendments to the GFF Constitution, against what they now enjoy?”, Moses asked.
