Guyana Football Federation (GFF) President Wayne Forde said yesterday that his federation has been fined by CONCACF and that the home fixture between the Lady Jaguars and Dominica in the 2023 Road to Gold Cup Qualifiers on Sunday will now be played at the Wildey Stadium in Barbados.
The match was scheduled for the National Track and Field Centre at Leonora.
Forde, during a brief interview with Stabroek Sport yesterday, said that they had gotten approval for the match to be played in Barbados.
“Yes, we got the approval for the move yesterday [Monday],” he said.
Asked why the venue wasn’t approved for the fixture in comparison to The Bahamas and Golden Jaguars encounter in the Nations League on September 12th, Forde said the decision was CONCACAF’s not theirs.
“CONCACAF, when they visited the venue two days prior to The Bahamas game and inspected the turf, they immediately informed us that the venue, but moreso, the surface, was not suitable for this level of an international match and that the game would not be played there. After they informed us, we relayed to them that there were no other suitable venues in Guyana, and this is the only facility that we have access to, but they still wanted to inspect other venues.”
He disclosed that the Camp Ayanganna, Eve Leary and National Training Centre locations were subsequently inspected by the regional officials but were ruled out, especially the Providence facility, which is currently a hive of construction activity and would have impeded the ongoing work of the contractors.
“The only other alternative at the time was to abandon the game and that would have hurt Guyana and wasted significant resources,” he declared.
Forde said that a late decision to host the Golden Jaguars vs The Bahamas fixture at the Region #3 facility was eventually realized following a period of lobbying and persuading.
He revealed that the GFF was subsequently fined US$5,000 for the quality of the playing surface at Leonora despite them not being the custodians of the facility.
He said that he was made aware in the sanctioning letter, that the venue did not meet the required standards, adding that CONCACAF’s decision was communicated to the curators of the facility.
Forde said that he is unsure if the October international home matches will be hosted at the Leonora facility, noting that while he is confident of the November fixtures being staged locally, the GFF will be monitoring the situation and the ultimate decision will be made by the CONCACAF officials.
He stated that the GFF is already assessing options for relocating the October home fixtures, as they are not in a position to provide assurances to the regional confederation that the surface at the National Track and Field Centre would meet the requisite standards despite the best efforts of the custodians to resolve the issues.
