Forde hoping to continue presenting “good- quality” football

Guyana Football Federation (GFF) President Wayne Forde is revelling in the success of the year-end season and the Federation’s ability to deliver high-quality, sport-centric entertainment, along with its organising partners.

Over the past month, along with the Kashif and Shanghai (K&S) Organisation and the Guyana National Women’s Football Association (GNWFA), the Federation has been able to stage three tournaments – the Men’s and Women’s Super-16 tournaments and a futsal competition.

In an exclusive interview with the Guyana Times Sport, President Forde summed up the hectic 2021-2022 year-end season, which he said was very rewarding for the work invested.
“My staff and the members of the K&S Organisation have been working exceedingly hard. I think we can all admit that both tournaments went relatively well. Behind the scenes, there’s always challenges, but I think what we delivered to the public was a really good tournament,” Forde told this publication.
He went on to add, “I can just use this occasion to say thanks to everyone that came out, in particularly the Government of Guyana for really supporting the year-end football tournament. “
As the football boss sought to break down the games he witnessed over the past few weeks, he was honest about the reduced competitiveness on show, but was hesitant to throw any blame on the players themselves.
“I think the Super-16 tournament was very exciting. I think we can all admit that the quality of play was not where it was in 2019 and that’s because of the extensive layoff of the players, but I am very confident, all things being equal, God willing, 2022 is an improved year,” Forde explained.
He then turned his attention to the shorter format, stating, “Now here we are, trying to bring the curtains down on the futsal tournament, this has been going very well also.”
“I know we’re seeing some challenges in January and hopefully we can see that subside as early as possible,” he further noted.
By the looks of it, there are great things in store for football in 2022. Eyeing the positive reception that the trio of tournaments received, Forde explained that the intention was to build upon this already successful model.
“I think what we’re seeing here is what we really want to do going forward. We really want to consume the December, early to mid-January calendar with football. We want everyone to plan their vacation, their season around a bonanza of football events and we’re not done yet,” Forde stated.
He continued, “We’re going to be doing an evaluation of everything we would have done and we’re going to be looking to see if there’s other gaps within that window that we can do additional activities. Not necessarily tournaments, but additional football activities that engage the public.”
Although the 2022 year-end is quite some months away, Forde is equally as optimistic about the remainder of the year, when it comes to the restart of regular local football.
“If we can get football playing with some regularity in 2022, then I think not just year-end football but all the tournaments we have on our calendar for the year will present to the public good-quality football,” the GFF President stated.
With all three tournaments done and dusted, the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) remain the champions of the Men’s Super-16 while the Guyana Police Force (GPF) FC are the first-ever Women’s Super-16 winners, with Sparta Boss becoming the new futsal champions. (Jemima Holmes)