The President of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), Wayne Forde on Monday, May 30 2016, held a press conference at the GFF headquarters to brief the media of the outcomes of the GFF Ordinary Congress that was
GFF’s President Wayne Forde and GFF’s P.R.O Debra Francis
held on Saturday, 28th May, 2016 at Herdsmanston Lodge, Queenstown. Other pending issues were also discussed.
Forde said “It was an exceptionally good Congress. Success of the Congress is credited exclusively to the 22 Member Associations. The conduct of the Congress was very professional; engaging, open and honest.”
He added that the Executive Body is very pleased with the outcome of the Congress “It important to make mention that I’m convinced at this point that we have a unified football fraternity. In all of my engagements with the media and the public in general over the past six months, I have maintained one common theme and that is, the football fraternity appears to want to demonstrate that to Guyana, to the business community and wider society that we have had enough of the turmoil, we have had enough of in-fighting and we’re prepared to go in a different direction. I’m very optimistic of the future.”
Forde highlighted that some of the key decisions taken at the congress were;
1. The Amendment of the Electoral Code. The amendment was made to the electoral code to allow a member of the Executive Committee to be replaced, in the event of a withdrawal (providing its not more than 50%), without an election. This amendment will require the Executive Committee to present the position/person to the Congress for ratification.
2. Amendment to the Executive Committee’s Expense and compensation provision. This amendment will seek greater oversight on any issue relative to expense and compensation that is due to the Executive Committee in the execution of their functions. This will fall under the Audit and Compliance Committee; this committee will set the oversight mechanism for compliance. The limit as submitted by the named committee will be submitted to the Congress for approval. The previous constitution had this issue very vaguely worded and was subject to the possibility of abuse.
3. Financial Assistance to members to be referred to the Finance Committee. The financial assistance offered by the Federation to its 22 Members will be submitted to the Finance Committee for review, recommended to the Executive Committee and later to be endorsed by the Congress. The GFF funds electricity and rent to the Member Associations but the Executive Committee feels more can be done in this regard.
4. Approval of the 2016-2017 Budget / Presentation of the New FAP Support. The annual FAP has been increased from $USD250, 000 to $USD1.2m with the possibility of earning another $USD250, 000. This is part of the promise made by current FIFA President, Giovanni Infantino during his election campaign. There will more oversight and scrutiny to ensure accountability. Capacity building will be afforded to GFF Member Associations to facilitate compliance to the accountability systems to be established.
5. Review of Contracts of Member Associations. All members engaging the corporate world for sponsorship and other engagements will have to submit draft contracts to the GFF for review prior to final sign-off in order to ensure that the said contracts protect the interests of football and speak to the development agenda of the game.
Forde concluded the press conference saying he is very pleased with the development of football during his time as President and sees a bright future ahead for both GFF and Guyana.
