Forde hails Youth Ensemble Programme, highlighting refereeing, logistics challenges

Guyana Football Federation (GFF) President Wayne Forde has described the successful conclusion of the Youth Ensemble Programme as an important first step, while acknowledging several challenges that will need to be addressed as the initiative develops.
Reflecting on the inaugural programme, Forde pointed to the increased demand placed on the country’s refereeing fraternity as one of the major challenges.
“I think we’ve seen the load that it has placed on the refereeing fraternity. So, we had to really work hard to recruit new referees, and that was both a challenge and an opportunity because we have a lot of young people that stepped forward, and they were trained,” Forde said.
He noted that the programme has already contributed to expanding the pool of officials, with one of the young referees getting the opportunity to officiate in the final.

“Many of them, I think we had one of them actually officiating in the finals today, young Gasper from the East Bank,” the GFF boss disclosed, “so we’ve added new numbers to our refereeing fraternity. That was one of the biggest challenges.”
Forde also highlighted the financial and logistical demands associated with transporting teams, particularly those from the Rupununi, to participate in the programme.
“Of course, the cost of moving teams around, the Rupununi boys, bringing them, taking them back home, was very, very costly,” he explained.
While the GFF currently has the resources to support the initiative, Forde stressed that continued improvement would require careful planning and the exploration of more sustainable solutions.
“We now have to figure out if there are other ideas and solutions to do that. Yes, we have at this point the resources, but it’s not a matter of having the resources. You always have to plan for improvement in whatever you do,” he said.
Forde believes the lessons learned from the programme’s first year will help shape its future.
“We will see how those lessons that we learned in the first year of this project. It’s not finished,” he said, signalling the GFF’s intention to build on the foundation laid by the Youth Ensemble Programme.