Nine clubs from across Guyana’s length and breadth gathered at the Guyana Football Federation’s (GFF) National Training Centre (NTC) in Providence yesterday as the 2023-2024 Elite League Promotional Playoffs were launched and the respective groups drawn. The nine clubs, all champions of their respective Regional Member Association (RMA) leagues and elimination events, were drawn into three groups of three, with each team playing the others once in a round-robin format. Technical Director Bryan Joseph and competition official Joyann Williams were responsible for the drawing.
Group A comprises Buxton Stars (East Coast Demerara), Beacons (Bartica), and Monedderlust (Berbice), while Group B contains Tabatinga (Rupununi), Herstelling Raiders (East Bank), and Beacons (Georgetown). Group C is made up of Dartmouth (Essequibo/Pomeroon), Slingerz (West Demerara), and Winners Connection (Upper Demerara).
Matches are pencilled for Saturdays at several venues, including Eve Leary, Rosignol, Bartica Community Centre, Buxton Ground, Wisburg Secondary School Ground, Tuschen, Anna Regina Multilateral, and Wadapna.
At the conclusion of the round-robin section, the respective group winners and the best second-place finisher will progress to the semi-final segment. The knockout aspect will be played on a home-and-away basis.
The eventual winner of the playoffs will seal an automatic entry to season six of the Elite League, while the losing finalist will face the Victoria Kings (who were in 9th place in the previous Elite League’s season) for another shot at Elite League status.
Meanwhile, GFF President Wayne Forde thanked the “hardworking presidents of the nine RMAs for executing their leagues”. He also acknowledged the challenges that some of them would have had to face and commended the winning clubs that made it to the promotional playoffs for putting in the work and winning their respective RMA leagues.
On another note, Forde touched on the practice of bigger clubs poaching standout players from the smaller clubs, disclosing, “GFF wants to see meaningful solutions to the challenge of the bigger clubs taking up players from the smaller clubs who would have invested a lot in those players”.
To this end, Forde announced that there will be regulations that will give all clubs the right to have commercial rights to any player who wants to transfer to another club. However, he did not reveal how this mechanism will work or how the value of players will be ascertained.
He also revealed that the GFF is working “feverishly” for the lighting apparatus to be operational at the NTC within the next two weeks and expressed hope that some of the participating teams would be able to play under the lights.
In the same vein, and with work moving on at the NTC, Forde noted, “We are doing our best to ensure that season six will be uninterrupted by weather or otherwise”.
He also spoke about the GFF’s ambition of expanding the Elite League but maintained that the GFF has to “set right” certain issues before that expansion could happen.
Touching on the monetary grant that the Elite League clubs now enjoy as opposed to when the league was first started, where participating clubs had to pay a fee, Forde declared, “We are also considering ways and means to ensure that the participation grant for the Elite League is increased from the current $500,000”.
Additionally, the GFF will be providing equipment to aid in the various clubs’ preparations as well as financial grants. However, the amount was not stated.
Group Stage Fixtures
Group A:
Buxton Stars (East Coast Demerara) vs. Beacons (Bartica)
Beacons (Bartica) vs. Monedderlust (Berbice)
Buxton Stars (East Coast Demerara) vs. Monedderlust (Berbice)
Group B:
Tabatinga (Rupununi) vs. Herstelling (East Bank Demerara)
Herstelling (East Bank Demerara) vs. Beacons (Georgetown)
Beacons (Georgetown) vs. Tabatinga (Rupununi)
Group C:
Dartmouth (Essequibo/Pomeroon) vs. Slingerz (West Demerara)
Slingerz (West Demerara) vs. Winners Connection (Upper Demerara)
Winners Connection (Upper Demerara) vs. Dartmouth (Essequibo/Pomeroon)
