GFF, Kashif & Shanghai join forces for Super 16 Cup

The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and renowned organizers Kashif and Shanghai will be teaming up once again, to bring highly anticipated year-end football action in a matter of weeks.

This is according to a message from GFF President Wayne Forde, that was disseminated on Thursday, followed by a press briefing, where the details of the partnership was discussed.
“K&S has a long track record of organising highly engaging and successful football events, which are vital for the development of football in terms of increasing participation among players, officials, coaches and fans, as well as driving much-needed private and public sector investment in the game.”
“It is my pleasure to announce today that the GFF will, once again, join forces with K&S for the staging of the 2021 GFF-K&S Super 16 Cup,” Forde wrote in his message.
According to the GFF boss, the Super 16 Cup preliminary rounds will take place at the regional association level across Guyana, with clubs from eight of nine associations competing for places in the finals. A representative XI from the Rupununi Football Association will qualify directly for the round of sixteen play-offs.
The last collaboration between the two entities came in December-January 2020/2021, when they hosted a short-format “Bounce back” football tournament.
Notably, Kashi and Shanghai are elated to team up with the Federation once again, in the interest of the betterment of football.
“Football, we think, is in safe hands. This type of collaboration can only do well for football because we see, over the years, even though football wasn’t being played on the outside, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) was doing a fantastic job on the inside,”
“One of the main evidence is the all weather football field that we have outside there right now. So, we’re on our way to making this really good once again,” Kashif Muhammad, one half of the K&S brand, said on Wednesday.
Sharing on the specifics of the tournaments, Forde disclosed that the team is striving to set up a ‘Command Centre’ where information on or about the tournament can be sought out.
“We would like to have everyone involved, the GFF team and the K&S team in one space, with the necessary resources, because we know it’s going to be very, very busy,” Forde revealed.
On the format of the tournament, the GFF President said, “We may end up going to a straight knockout format. We were hoping to give a little more mileage on the clock with the guys on their legs, but time may not permit. So, we may have to go into the association put two groups this way and have them go at each other.”
Shifting his focus to the Coronavirus pandemic and the strain it may or may not place on the event, Forde stated that weather is the least of the GFF’s worries, and the management of the COVID-19 situation being intrinsic to the success of the tournament.
“In our planning we have to cater for every eventuality. December being a wet month is not anything that we’re unaccustomed to, the good thing is that we have a venue that is not affected by the weather, so I think that we’re going to be good with that,” Forde shared.
He added, “The one that we have to really manage is the COVID-19 situation and there is where, the only way we can succeed, that is if we have the full cooperation of our players, our officials and our fans. If we don’t have that, then we have some challenges that we prefer not to deal with.”