Incumbent president of the Guyana Amateur Body Building and Fitness Federation (GABBFF), Keavon Bess has stated that the Federation intends to become a paying member of the IFBB. The attorney at law indicated that the athletes are aiming far beyond the Caribbean and Central American Classics, which has become the norm.
GABBFF President Keavon Bess
“Because of the importance, we intend to start (paying) on a yearly basis especially the fact that our athletes are now trying to get into the competitions outside of the CAC, they no longer limiting themselves to CAC but want to go further and do the South America classic, North America Classic and so forth,” Bess said.
This revelation was made on the fact that Guyanese bodybuilders, Kerwin Clarke and Emmerson Campbell have both missed the chance to make it to the Arnold Amateur Classic in Ohio this year following the GABBFF’s delinquent actions relating to paying their affiliation fees to the IFBB.
The local federation has not been paying the fees in excess of a decade; to what Bess reasons was lack of participation and limited rewards as well as not making economic sense.
“For the past 10 or more years Guyana has not been sending athletes to represent us at IFBB competition, yes we went to Mr. Universe competition, Mr. World and so forth and the CAC competition. And the main reason why was that we were not sending athletes to those competitions so it would have been us finding about $85,000 per year to send to IFBB without much tangible rewards but never the less is important to pay the fees because IFBB remains the governing international body for the sport but it was not economically feasible to pay $85,000 on a yearly basis especially in light of the fact that we were not getting anything tangible from it,” the Attorney pointed out.
However, while the GABBFF has not been paying to IFBB, their CAC fees are up to date as according to the president who said, “CAC is affiliated to IFBB but we have more or less avoided paying the heavy fees to IFBB and pay our affiliation on a yearly basis so we have been in compliance with CAC but not in compliance with IFBB.”
As such, Bess has indicated the intention of the Federation to seek an audience with those in charge of the IFBB to seek a waiver of all outstanding fees owed to them retroactive from 2016 so that the fees will only be applicable to 2017 and onwards.
He went on to say that it is important that the persons making it to CAC 2017 in Mexico to make representation of Guyana to provide the relevant information showcasing the financial difficulties in the country while soliciting the waiver. (Romario Samaroo)
