The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) launched its nationwide refereeing recruitment campaign under the theme “Get Involved” on Tuesday in the boardroom of the GFF Secretariat.
Done virtually, considering the COVID-19 limitations, the launch featured speeches from GFF President Wayne Forde, Technical Director Ian Greenwood; and Head of the Refereeing Department, Dion Inniss.
Dion Inniss said, “I am delighted to announce the start of a national recruitment for our referees; so, the reason we are recruiting, is because we need to grow. We have our referees that have been officiating games over the years; however, we need new blood, energetic legs into the referees’ programme.
Technical Director Ian Greenwood
“The age range is 16-25. You may ask, ‘Why?’, it’s because we are looking to have those persons give us 15 to 20 years of service. So, we want everyone to get involved. Instead of sitting behind your television and judging the game, we want everyone to get involved in the officiating.”
GFF Technical Director Ian Greenwood noted that, over the past few years, the GFF has seen tremendous success in its junior and senior teams. He noted that the GFF would need to ensure the environment in which the players are operating is one of professional standard.
“We need to ensure that the environment has top class referees at every single age group, because recruiting more referees is a fantastic part of our developmental process. We are very excited from our technical point of view. The GFF would invest a lot in infrastructure, coach development, and referee development for our female players, as we want to place special emphasis on our female players.” Greenwood explained.
Head of the Refereeing Department Dion Inniss
Relating that the GFF is very excited about the programme, he cautioned that referees would have to be committed to the programme, the main aim of which is to ensure there is a massive batch of referees in different administrative regions, which would reduce the workload on referees, and is regarded as better than sending one group of referees to different venues constantly. From this, one would see great results for the game, he said. Greenwood iterated that Guyana has definitely produced great referees for CONCACAF, and mentioned that the country needs to get back to doing that, but said this result can only come from investing.
GFF President Wayne Forde has urged everyone to be on the lookout for a robust programme staged by the GFF in 2021.
“I can say that those that are already onboard with us, or even planning to join this programme, I can assure you that the GFF would invest in you, so that you can be given the best in your refereeing career, and succeed. We believe that everyone will be given a chance at success, I would like to say to everyone out there, ‘Let’s get involved, because we will be launching a very robust calendar in 2021, once we have a better handle on the COVID-19 situation,” Forde related.
The GFF boss noted that the GFF would invest heavily in the development of its officials, and will do its utmost to ensure that everyone succeeds.
Greenwood iterated that Guyana has definitely produced great referees for CONCACAF, and mentioned that the country needs to get back to doing that, but said this result can only come from investing.
