GFF, Regional associations on same page following MoU

– Associations boosted with gears ahead of national tournaments

By Romario Samaroo

At a simple handing over ceremony at the Georgetown Football Federation (GFF) head office, Dadanawa Street, Section K, Campbellville, the federation presented the sub-associations with gears after signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Member Association on Friday.

The GFF-NAMILCO ‘Thunderbolt Flour Power’ National Under- 17 Intra-Association Tournament and the GFF-Pele Alumni Frank Watson National U-15 Intra Association Tournament are scheduled to begin in early May and as such the football gears were given ahead of the start of the National Under 15 tournament by President of the GFF, Wayne Forde.

While there are nine association members, only six were present including East Bank Demerara, Berbice, Essequibo/Pomeroon, Upper Demerara, West Demerara and Bartica of which their respective presidents collected on their behalf.

Meanwhile, Forde reiterated that “today is a very important day for football in Guyana and again today is another example of the executive committee delivering on its promise and commitment to its membership” as the two entities entered into an agreement.

This memorandum, he pointed out “is a necessary step in establishing the level of corporation I think we need between all the stake holders that are involved in the administration of football.”

Looking on what had been accomplished in the previous months of the nationwide NAMILCO tournament that ran a few months ago, Forde indicated that it “give the GFF an opportunity to evaluate where we are as a family in terms of our capacity to execute some of our programmes and what we observed during the months that the NAMILCO tournament ran for is that many of our colleagues within the membership have some fundamental challenges in terms of their ability to execute and the challenge range from the capacity to just being more responsible and accountable for the materials that were issued to them and ensuring that the conduct of the league was consistent with what was expected from members association.”

It is that tournament that gave birth to the idea of having an agreement between the two parties which would highlight the various roles and responsibilities of those involved.

“We thought about it and we saw it as a learning opportunity and what we have done is put together a memorandum of understanding that clearly indicates the responsibility of the members and the federation so I think this will give us some platform that we can move forward on because ultimately we are accountable to the sponsors and we cannot have the sponsors coming on board giving us their support otherwise and not be able to execute these tournaments so it is important that the football family our member association recognise that everything considered and done to ensure we protect these relationships that we have.” Forde said The GFF president praised the Pele Alumni Organisation saying that it “sets a very fine example for former players of the game for them to come on board and support a tournament that reaches beyond their club in my opinion is very commendable” but nevertheless expects the organisers “to perform and run this tournament in a manner that demonstrate a level of worthiness and investment that was made.”

He went on to say that the GFF will be “looking forward to an exciting and competitive tournament both at the Under 15 and u 17 levels” pleading the commitment of the GFF.

According to the GFF boss, the executive committee will be visiting venues over the course of this league “to have a first-hand view as to the execution and the quality of the players as the leagues will present the best opportunity for the scouting of players which is a new strategy implemented by the technical department.”