GFF defends choice to host U20 tournament instead of U23

Last week, it was disclosed that the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) is preparing to host a nationwide Intra-Association Under- 20 Knockout tournament. The timing of this announcement coincided with the one indicating that Guyana was drawn in Group ‘A’ of the impending CONCACAF men’s Olympic qualifiers, which happen to be an Under 23 tournament.

Accordingly, questions were raised about the Football Federation’s decision to host an Under 20 tournament, rather than upping the age limit to accommodate those local players who may have Olympic dreams.
Technical Director of the GFF, Ian Greenwood, at the launching of the Under 20 tournament, initially touched on the subject in noting that there are already senior team players who are being considered for the July 17-21 qualifiers.
“In terms of player development, we’ll be looking to recruit players for the upcoming Under 23 qualifiers for the Olympics. We know that we have a lot of key players involved in the senior team already, such as Duke-McKenna, such as Kevin Layne and Sese Norville, who should be integral members of the Olympic squad, but we are using this tournament to scout other players at the Under 20 level,” Greenwood said.

However, when further pressed on the subject, Greenwood and GFF President Wayne Forde sought to clarify their decision from the technical and business ends.
Touching on their partnership with KFC for the National Under 20 tournament, Forde vaguely explained the need for companies to consider their marketing demographics when entering a partnership.
“A lotta times, when you meet with your partner, there has to be an accommodation of the interests on both sides of the discussion. So while we may have specific technical goals when we try to put together proposal packages, we also have to listen to the partnership,” the GFF boss said.
Greenwood, on the other hand, centred his defense on the players’ basis. “The idea of the U20 tournament is to look at the players from 17-20 that may now be getting into an elite league fourth team at the moment, so that’s why we’re using this tournament to look at the age group,” Greenwood explained.
He further shed light on the relevance of identifying younger, active players rather than older footballers who are not as active.
“In terms of the age group itself, if we have players over the age of 20 that are not playing in the elite league on a regular basis, then it’s going to be very, very hard for them to be considered for the Under 23 National Team.”
Greenwood also disclosed that the Federation already have their eye on a few players from the Senior Men’s National team who will fall into the age restriction.
“We have a core group of players that we know are in the senior men’s national team at the moment, between the ages of 20 to 23. They would be the key players that we’ll be looking at already,” Greenwood explained.
With most of those players being overseas- based, the focus is now on identify top local talents. Like any other tournament at the CONCACAF level, a mixture of international and locally-based players is welcome.
While the National Under 20 tournament will run from April 27- May 20, and there will be a playoff from May 31 to June 9, the CONCACAF Olympic qualifiers are scheduled for July 17-21.
Guyana has been drawn in Group ‘A’ of the competition, along with St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, and Caribbean football powerhouse Jamaica.
If Guyana succeeds at the Group stage, the team would be required to play and win one more game before heading into the CONCACAF Men’s Olympic qualifying championships against three teams from the Central American version of the qualifying competition, and the North American representatives: Mexico, Canada and the USA.