The million-dollar question currently asked especially with the 2022 FIFA World Cup taking place in Qatar is, who is the first Guyanese referee to officiate at the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) senior level?
The answer to that question is Mickey Maxwell and Joseph Lester, both of whom were referees at the 1979 CFU Championship where they made their debuts. In the previous year, when the CFU sponsored its inaugural Caribbean Nations Cup, no Guyanese officials were selected.
The first Guyanese linesman [assistant referee] to officiate at a FIFA World Cup qualifier was the late Dereck Whitehead.
Whitehead and Antigua & Barbuda’s Ivor Davis were the linesmen when Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados clashed in a World Cup qualifier at the National Stadium in Bridgetown 1976. The referee was Cuban Ramon Calderon.
The decision to include Maxwell and Lester was taken at the CFU Congress which was held in May 1979 in French Guiana.
Guyana was represented at the congress by then association assistant secretary Ivor O’Brien. The 1979 CFU congress was attended by 15 of the 20 members. The countries were Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominican Republic, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Martinique, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Following the congress, a committee was set up by CFU to look into the structure of professional league football. The 1979 committee comprised Guyana’s O’Brien, Rudy Lord of Barbados, and John Allen of Trinidad & Tobago. The 1978 Caribbean Nations Cup Football Tournament first round occurred on June 24th.
