This Saturday, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) is scheduled to hold an Extraordinary Congress at the GFF National Training Centre at Providence to ratify proposed amendments to its constitution. This exercise is keeping with FIFA’s mandate to all 211 member associations, in its bid to improve governance and transparency.
The GFF had appointed a ‘Statutes Revision Committee,’ which was headed by National Women’s Football Association President Andrea Johnson, to expedite the process. However, the other members of the committee were never disclosed by the GFF.
A number of the proposals have drawn the ire of some members of the local football fraternity, and questions are being asked about the true intentions of the GFF at this point. As regular readers of this column are well aware, the foibles of this bumbling local body have been duly documented here over the past five years, but this instance appears to be that proverbial back-breaking last straw.
In July, Eton Moses, the Secretary of Buxton United Football Club (BUFC), raised a hornet’s nest when he submitted a proposal to contain an article that enables discussions and debates as “Matters Arising” from the minutes of the previous Congress before those minutes are approved, and asked why the FIFA draft constitutional amendments were not circulated among the local associations who were expected to comment and offer counter proposals. The GFF’s response was to deem his queries as political and seek refuge behind a statement from FIFA Member Association Manager Sofia Malizia, who had paid a short visit to the GFF in June at the commencement of the process.
“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,” the release from FIFA stated.
“FIFA encourages all member associations to adopt additional principles of good governance and best practices in their statutes and regulations”, the release added.
Well it appears that the GFF is attempting to make full use of this grey area in the communication and hoodwink the local associations by surreptitiously introducing amendments that might not actually be in keeping with good governance and transparency. These new clauses, which are obviously the architecture of a legal mind very familiar with the articles of associations of sporting organisations, are included in the draft sent to local associations for Saturday’s meeting without highlights. Thus, members would be forced to peruse the entire draft constitution to ascertain what the proposed changes actually are, whilst being unaware of which amendments are from FIFA and which are from the GFF.
However, it isn’t possible to pull wool over everyone’s eyes. Moses astutely notes that BUFC views the proposals to insert the GFF address; name change of Congress to Council; and delete a few nonfunctional Committees names, among other proposals, as merely cosmetic. The BUFC secretary added that his club has taken full cognizance of the stealthy inserted amendments, several of which are cause for great concern, especially with regard to members’ voting rights and third terms for certain positions.
Here are some of the worrisome amendments up for Saturday’s vote. On page 24, Article 27 (5), The Quorum of Congress states: “Once it is declared that the Congress has been convened and composed in accordance with these Statutes, the quorum shall not be influenced by delegates departing. Delegates arriving after it has been declared that the Congress has been convened and composed in accordance with these Statutes may join the debates and may be entitled to vote.” Please note the use of the word ‘may’ in context. At whose discretion ‘may’ delegates be allowed to participate?
In Article 16 (1), it is proposed that a “suspension approved by the Council shall last until the next Congress unless the Council has lifted it in the meantime. Further, in Article 23 (1), it is proposed that “the Council may also dismiss a member of a body provisionally, with the exception of the members of the independent committees. The provisional dismissal approved by the Council shall be confirmed by the next Congress”.
The present rule mandates a time for which a Congress shall be called to settle the issue, but under the new proposal the person provisionally suspended or dismissed will be left to the discretion of the executives’ decision to call Congress.
On page 30, Article 36 (4) states, “No person may serve as President for more than three terms of office (whether consecutive or not). All other members (including any vice-president) of the Council may serve for no more than three terms of office (whether consecutive or not).” This amendment was ratified by FIFA since 2016, and thus begs the question why the GFF is only addressing this matter now? Why wasn’t it addressed when the GFF Constitution was last amended at the 2019 Congress? (It should be noted that the 2019 amendments were presented to Congress for ratification without any prior discussions).Is it because the present GFF Executive’s second term in office is now in its penultimate year?
It is ironic that the Constitution Review Statutes process that is supposed to provide good governance and transparency is shrouded in secrecy and mystery with limited input from the persons – the clubs and players – who are the actual representatives of the sport. One might hasten to ask FIFA what they think of this local exercise, but based upon their past wranglings, one quickly realises that would be an utter waste of time.
The GFF Executive appears to be more concerned about consolidating their positions rather than developing the sport. After seven years at the helm, as the sport continues to decline and the players become more frustrated, the suits will continue to pat themselves on the back for a job well done after Saturday’s Congress.
