New GFF TD to focus on youth development

Recently appointed Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Technical Director Ian Greenwood has revealed that his focus will be on creating a national football plan, starting with youth development.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday at the Federation’s Secretariat, Greenwood stated, “My focuses are on youth development, grassroots and coach education, my belief is that if we can get the foundation correct, over time it will improve the overall football infrastructure in Guyana”.
Greenwood, who is replacing Canadian, based Guyanese Claude Bolton who resigned in March of this year, has signed a four year contract which he hopes to see “big improvements as a football federation.”
Greenwood is an English UEFA-Qualified Coach, with over 10 years of coaching/management experience at various levels of the sport including the U-14, U-15, U-16, U-18 and U-21 teams at Leeds United Football Club and seven years’ experience in coach education.
Having being part of such prestigious institutions, the 31 year-old was quizzed as to why he chose to accept the offer in Guyana.
He responded saying,  “my biggest reason was that I was  looking for a new project, my contract a Leeds United came to an and I was looking for a project that I see as a long term,  all the things going on in Guyana football are all geared towards the future.”
The  Englishman added,” my biggest thing was coming to a place where I can create a philosophy, from a football fit its really good fit for me, as a  Caribbean nation we  need to push and qualify for tournaments.”
As part of his job in England, he designed club curriculums and technical programmes.
He also supported squad and team management at various levels of the academy to progress players to the first team and youth international squads.
Quizzed on his impression of football Guyana he stated that it has “fantastic amount of potential, but the thing we need to focus on is the structure and guideline of development of football, we need to understand how we want our   football.”
Greenwood further explained that, “Say for example you understand a Dutch or Brazilian style of play, we need to develop our own style of play and what we expect from our players, this is the biggest thing we need to understand.”
Meanwhile, GFF President Wayne Forde expressed his excitement over the federation acquiring the expertise of Greenwood since he hopes he can finally see substantial progress in youth football.
Forde posited that, “they have been talks of having a youth development programme over the years but several failed; Mr. Bolton came and  did  some exceptional works,  the foundation is very critical for the development for the sport an I’m very positive about the future of Guyana football”.
The President revealed that TD’s financial package will be handled by FIFA and that “every aspect of football review is subject to Greenwood’s review, and he will be involved at levels of football.”
According to FIFA regulations, the TD and National Coach cannot be the same, however Forde explained that subject to the Federation’s approval the Technical Director will be part of all levels of football since “we simply cannot have a national coach philosophy which is different from the philosophy Mr. Greenwood may have, we need to  have one Philosophy.”
Greenwood, who has a MSc Degree in Sports Coaching, has also been involved in coach education in the capacity of Club/ Professional Coach Mentor as well as Lecturer at the following institutions – Leeds City College, Huddersfield Town Football Club, The Football Association and Leeds Beckett University.