Former Golden Jaguars head coach Wayne Dover said the choice of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) to overlook experienced and overseas based players for Guyana’s recently concluded CFU Caribbean Cup duties was in his opinion not the right decision.
Speaking exclusively to Stabroek Sports, Dover said:” I think it wasn’t a good decision by the administration to overlook the nation’s senior players. The tried and tested players, the players who were just a part of the historic senior national team that played at the CONCACAF semi-final stage in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
“Those players have toiled day and night. They made the sacrifices to come from their respective homes to help this nation’s football to the highest level it has ever been in the history of our existence.”
According to the Alpha United tactician the GFF missed out on an opportunity of moving Guyana’s football forward.
“This was an opportunity for the administration to build on in taking our football even further. Unfortunately they have chosen a pathway that is highly questionable. While development is paramount in a nation, there must be a comprehensive developmental programme from nursery to senior to take us to these championships that we aim for.
“It is evident that none of our junior teams have qualified for youth championships and there should be an urgent look at the structure we have from the junior section. Only then can we really talk seriously about development for senior football because it will be holistically from junior to senior,” he added.
Questioned about the possible reasons for overlooking the seasoned players, Dover: “If the reasons for them not bringing in the foreign born and based players was financial, then they should have selected the best possible experienced local players with the best young prospects to give the exposure to. This squad was not selected from the best possible local players available to them.”
Asked if the results would have been different if an experienced approach was taken, Dover said:” I anticipated that the results would have been much more different if a senior and seasoned team went to the championship. No one is against development of young players and football but it must be done in stages”.
He added:” I didn’t see any of the games but the results were very disappointing as we were not able to qualify out of a group with the likes of Dominica, St. Lucia and St. Kitts and Nevis who are minnows in the CFU region.
“What was much more disturbing to me is when I read the article which says Guyana held Dominica to a draw, I felt very hurt because of the many sacrifices of the former staff and players to take Guyana football to the highest point.
“The fact that Dominica, St. Lucia and St. Kitts and Nevis don’t have a history of winning against Guyana, it was disappointing. We held one of the teams in a group to draw and lost the other two,” he said.
Quizzed about the federation’s initial aim for the team, he said “I am a bit confused what their objective was because I heard the GFF President spoke about developing young players, giving exposure so that they can gain the experience. The coach as well has spoken of that too, but subsequently before the team departed he mentioned in an article that his aim is to ensure that they qualify out of the group.
“That leaves me very confused as a coach as to what really was the objective of the team entering the CFU Caribbean Cup. The CFU championship is the Caribbean region’s highest tournament which gives you opportunity to qualify for the CONCACAF Gold Cup which is another level.
“That in itself should have been our aim. Qualifying one to four in the CFU Caribbean cup would have automatically qualified us for the CONCACAF Gold Cup which would be two folds in terms of financial gain. Placing one to four would have ensured you received prize money at the CFU level, hence qualification for the CONCACAF Gold Cup is an automatic financial reward.
“A cash-strapped GFF should have been aiming to gain returns after the investment of sending the team. That is where they should have assembled the best possible players available and at the same time look at the young talented players who have been exposed already, the likes of Trayon Bobb, Pernell Schultz and Daniel Wilson,” he said.
