1-month timeline given for first phase of GFF’s D’Urban Park facility

Story and photos By Jemima Holmes

What will either be the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) National Technical Centre or the GFF Football Stadium, situated at D’Urban Park in the heart of the capital city Georgetown is now taking shape; with work currently ongoing to clear the land and prepare mini football pitches.

This is according to GFF President Wayne Forde, who, during a site visit on Monday afternoon, updated One CONCACAF and Caribbean Projects Head Howard McIntosh, on the state of the project.
The facility at D’Urban park, which the GFF is still mulling an official name for, will not only see mini pitches that will be opened to players from around the community and further afield, but also a full- fledged football stadium and technical centre.

“The plan is to build a stadium that can have a seating capacity between 12 to 14,000. The plan is also to have mini pitches that will allow us to have community grassroots football activity 24 hours a day. The plan is to have some elements of the GFF Administration relocated to this site. We are actively pursuing as we would have announced a while ago a genuine professional league project in Guyana and this venue here has been identified as the venue, that this will be the home of the Pro League.,” Forde detailed about the GFF’s plans for the facility.
The project has commenced with the portion of the land that will house the mini pitches being prepared by McGregor’s Real Estate Development. A project which is being fully funded by One CONCACAF and will cost approximately $18 million-$25 million.

The GFF boss shared about the current works, “The project that the contractor is undertaking is levelling the land, clearing it, taking out all the stumps and all the boulders and disposing of that and then half of the property is going to be sand-filled and compressed to a 12-inch finish. After we would have done that, we’re going to be mounting a couple of goals on that half of the pitch. So, while the engineering and other design processes are taking place, the youngsters from the community will be able to come out here and play football in the evenings.”
The contractor has given an initial one-month timeline for the completion of what is Phase One of the project.
When it comes to the larger project, that is the stadium, etc, Forde has given a four-year timeline and has said that the Federation will be seeking corporate assistance and other income streams to complete such a magnanimous project, that is set to bring pride to the nation’s football fraternity.

“Just the pride that the football fraternity will feel, because as we all know football as a sport, has not had the benefit of having the best of facilities, more so its own facility. So, I think that would be a watershed moment for our sport,” Forde said, in remarking on what the completion of the project would mean for Guyana’s football.
When probed about the way the pitches, especially the stadium pitch, would be constructed, Forde revealed that the verdict was still out on whether AstroTurf would be utilised.
He noted, “Well, there is a lot of debate by the technical staff as to whether the main pitch will be a natural grass, artificial pitch or a hybrid, I think we will give the engineers that decision and that challenge, because they will have to have a census to the level of usage, which I want to imagine will be high, because not only will we be playing the professionals here, it will also be suited for international games as well.”
Meanwhile, CONCACAF’s McIntosh marvelled at the progression he has seen in Guyana football as compared to yesteryear.
“You know, when I used to visit Guyana, we used to talk about, at one stage, normalisations and politics of football, but now we’re talking about facilities and we’re talking about development. And that is so, so important to us all…,” McIntosh remarked.
The GFF first acquired the land at D’Urban Park through a lease with the Government of Guyana back in February 2019.