Internal changes at FIFA delays Guyana’s goal project

The election of FIFA’s new President Gianni Infantino in February has resulted in some annexations of the world’s governing body football including staff changes.
The changes in staff have meant that the country’s goal project will have a further wait before it reaches to the next stage.
In September, the contract for preparatory works on the site which is located Providence was signed after being won by Dwain Ferdinand and Home Designs and Engineering Associates.

Speaking at a press conference, on Thursday President of the Guyana Football Federation Wayne Forde explained that the development arm of FIFA has been dissolved; the process for the development of the project has been delayed.
All FIFA funded projects fall under the development arm, meaning that those projects have now been grounded to a halt. Forde further stated that the FIFA office in Jamaica has been relocated to Barbados, and most of the key personnel have been replaced.
“As a consequence of that, all FIFA projects essentially have been grounded to a halt. We were visited by the representative from Greenfield two weeks ago for some preliminary discussion as to when the project will commence and some of the key aspects, admin aspects of business that we need to sort out. I am optimistic that we can actually see work on the project commencing by the last week of January, early February, but a lot of it is dependent on the changes that are taking place at Zurich [FIFA headquarters] at this moment,” Forde explained.
He added, “The former developmental office has been essentially dissolved, so you would imagine people that were very keen and critical to the execution of these projects [are] no longer involved and new people taking over, so it will take some time. Our project has advanced significantly; I think it’s just a matter of contracts being signed and cheques being released for the work to actually start. It’s out of the Guyana Football Federation’s hands; I think that is the key message here. We have done our part, months ago. Everything that they required of us we have satisfied. It’s now FIFA to deliver.”
The facility, which will be constructed at the Providence Community Centre Ground, will be done in two phases, the first phase of the project will be the installation of an artificial turf and the second phase will see infrastructure such as stands, lights, beach, Futsal training pitches, mini pitches and an administrative centre for the headquarters of the GFF being established.
Former head of the GFF Normalization Committee Chief Clinton Urling had brokered an agreement between the GFF and the Eccles/Ramsburg Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) for the location and was granted a 30 year lease for the land.
Caption: The conceptual design of Guyana’s FIFA Goal Project to be built at the Providence Community Centre ground