President of Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United FC Odinga Lumumba has confirmed that Bath Estate FC of Dominica will not be competing in Group-D of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) club championships scheduled to begin tomorrow at the Georgetown Cricket Club ground at 16:00 hours.
With their absence the Guyana Defence Force will now have to compete in this group after the team’s players were unable to procure visas for Puerto Rico where they would have been playing. After this was found out an appeal was made to the CFU for the team to play in Group D.
Meanwhile it was unclear why the Dominica club was unable to attend this international engagement. It was first reported by this newspaper that they were having difficulties with their flight, and then Stabroek Sport was told by Lumumba that the team was expected yesterday but reporters were informed yesterday that the team will not be attending.
GDF will now have to clash in the first match against Walking Boys FC of Suriname today, Alpha United will match skills with Walking Boys on Sunday and the two local teams will challenge for one of the two top spots on Tuesday. The top teams in the group will move to the second round and Alpha United will be looking to better last year’s first round exit.
Lumumba told media operatives yesterday that they have again appealed to the CFU for its intervention for Guyana to host those games. The final also will be held in Puerto Rico which will further put Guyana in a quandary. Lumumba said that he does not understand why the CFU would have taken such a stance but he realizes that he has “to live with it”. Should Guyana’s teams qualify for the second phase which is the CONCACAF Club Champions League it will be played on the home and away basis and each team that is playing at home will receive US $50,000, according to Lumumba.
He hopes that despite the initial problems the local teams have encountered, they use it as a motivation to do well and “carry Guyana’s flag all the way.”
Another issue that was raised at the briefing was the wisdom of having the local teams playing abroad since it is extremely costly to send a team outside of Guyana. Further, Lumumba said that sports teams are at the mercy of Caribbean Airlines which no longer “gives reduced prices to teams departing Guyana.”
Meanwhile, Lumumba expressed his gratitude to the Government of Guyana for its assistance to run off the tournament along with some corporate support which has come in handy.
Additionally, Lumumba revealed that the CFU has contributed US$10,000 ($2 million) to aid the club’s cause. He said that it will cost the club some $6 million to host the championships.
Captain Eon Murray of the GDF, who is the Manager of the team, said that his team was preparing diligently for the tournament despite the visa snag.
Murray also said that the GDF had appealed to the CFU through the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) for a change in venue and grouping after it was found out that some of their players were given visas.
And yesterday he said that he was pleased that his team is grouped with Alpha United and it is worthy to be in the tournament. He said that both teams’ prospects of qualifying for the second round are healthy but he echoed the sentiments that there will be more problems.
He joined the bandwagon and said that the venue should be changed to Guyana.
