President Ali announces plans for football development

By Jemima Holmes

President Dr. Irfaan Ali has announced, for sport in general and football in particular, a number of developmental initiatives that would transform the landscape of sports in the country, especially in Indigenous communities.

While delivering the feature address at the opening of the 23rd Annual District Games of the Upper Mazaruni in Region 7 last Sunday, President Ali unveiled several plans that would be rolled out for the development of sport across the country. High on the agenda is a ‘One Guyana’ Football Cup, an initiative that the President and the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) boss Wayne Forde had alluded to a few months ago, after having had discussions.
“The ‘One Guyana’ Football Cup will see every single region in this country participating. If we are to build football, we have to identify talent from all across the regions in Guyana. We have to bring those talents, nurture the talent, support the talent, and then put the talent forward for our national teams,” President Ali announced.
He added that the competition would see a team from every administrative region competing.

The President has also expressed intention to curate a development programme for 50 footballers. Guyana’s Head of State shared, “We will develop a pool of at least 50 players, and that 50 players will go in a special development programme that the Government will work with our local football association, so that we could develop them, so that we can make them competitive, so that we can get the right environment in which they can develop this great skill in football.”
President Ali also mused on implementing, for national players, a stipend programme that would afford them the opportunity to be part of the development process for the next generation of players.
“Let us identify national players that we have in all these areas across the country. Let us bring the national players to one pool, and let us then put them on a stipend programme which the Government will support. And we will assign them to schools, we will assign them to regions, so they will work to develop more talent,” President Ali stated, adding that retired national players would be kept in mind for this initiative.
It has been disclosed that the venue for the Upper Mazaruni Games would be the first of several grounds to be upgraded to FIFA standards by the Government. The President explained, “You will see in next year’s budget that we are going to upgrade the Kamarang Centre into a FIFA-standard facility, with the lights and everything, as a central place in which football will develop.
“And not only for football, to develop the entire area with the facilities that will support other sport disciplines,” the President added, as he expressed intentions to have one such facility in every administrative region in Guyana.
Aside from those plans, President Ali handed over on the spot a cheque worth $1.5M to finance hosting of the Upper Mazaruni District Games.