― standard of NAMILCO National U-17 league to be improved
The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) new Technical Director Ian Greenwood has constantly been voicing that great emphasis needs to be placed on the youth development in Guyana and that he will be doing his utmost to develop these raw talents.
However, the conditions that many of these players are forced to play domestic tournaments are bewildering considering on many occasions there are a lack of referees, the pitches are not properly groomed, the perimeter lines are not clearly visible, and at times there is a lack of nutritious refreshments for players, among other ailing issues which begs the question on how will the country’s “future” develop properly under such conditions.
Responding to these criticisms, President of the GFF Wayne Forde explained that his federation will take full control of the country’s youth tournaments as a way of curbing such deficiencies in junior football.
“The model of the Guyana Football Federation is a developing one and mostly likely the federation will assume full control of all youth football and what we will do with our associations is sit with them and identify the gaps within they can operate their youth tournaments,” Forde explained.
GFF President Wayne Forde
Last year the Federation managed to secure a five year-sponsorship deal with the National Milling Company (NAMILCO) worth $30M and saw fourteen of the sixteen shortlisted national U-15 players that represented Guyana in the Claude Elise Under-15 football Tournament in French Guiana in December, emerging from that tournament.
Giving his assessment of the league, he stated that “we are not completely happy with how some of the games were organised in some of the associations, the tournament was intended to be an opportunity for associations to build capacity and it is one of the reasons why we will go in and take over our youth tournaments as it is the heart of the our development”.
The league though successful for being a spotlight for players, it was hampered by organizational issues that affected the regularity and high standard of matches in some associations.
As a way of combating this issue Forde explained that “technical development officers will be assigned to the associations and will play a key role as these individuals will be paid by the federation and their job will be to ensure that all youth tournaments sanctioned by the federation operate at a certain established standard.”
The GFF boss also revealed that the officers will ensure proper game day management along with having the correct field preparation.
It was also disclosed that the Federation will soon be signing an under-15 intra association league which will have a similar model to the NAMILCO league and that plans are afoot in having leagues at the under-13 and under-19 levels this year.
