Despite the controversies stemming from their inaugural year-end tournament, newly elected UDFA President Collis Gifth said his association is currently planning to host its second annual mega football year-end event.
The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) general council suspended the previous Upper Demerara Football Association (UDFA) executives following the conclusion of the inaugural event, after they defied a directive not to hold their inaugural GT Beer final on January 1, which the council had okayed for the GFA Banks Beer Cup. The UDFA had gone ahead with its programme which led to their suspension and the association fell under the management of an Interim Management Committee.
Speaking exclusively to Stabroek Sports, Gifth said, “We will be hosting a year-end tournament. Based on our schedule we expect to start on the 29th of November. We will be accommodating 16 teams from within the association. If we don’t have all the teams from within association, then we will look at the option of inviting outside associations.”
According to Gifth, “What happened last year give us experience so we can approach this time around in a better manner. It’s no secret the impact of what transpired last year had on football within the area. To avoid further catastrophe, we decided to engage federation early so that both parties are comfortable.”
He further said, “From the UDFA perspective, we will definitely be having a year-end tournament and we ask the clubs to get their self together. It will take world cup format which will be four groups of four and the top two teams from each group will advance to the knockout-out stage.”
Questioned if the UDFA has applied to the GFF for permission to host the event, Gifth said, “We did send a request to the GFF to ask to help ratify the dates that we propose. As far as we know the federation is doing a yearend tournament as well but we don’t know the magnitude of their programme. That’s why we sent out the dates so we won’t get no clashes.” The UDFA head said that the group was hopeful for a positive response soon, “so we can move into second and third gear. We are hoping to use January 1st first to play games but we are not certain if it will be the final or semi-final. The fact that we sent the dates to the GFF to give consideration, that in itself means we shouldn’t have a reoccurrence of last year.”
“Mind you it’s not that we are anticipating any issue, it’s basically to avoid any clashes with games. In the event if a team from Linden reaching the final in both events that could cause problem. We don’t anticipate any problem, the federation and the association will work that out before hand to avoid any problem,” he added.
Asked if last year’s title sponsor Banks DIH has signalled their intention to continue supporting the event, Gifth said, “From last year, Banks had expressed that they are willing to work with the association for the development of football. We did engage them and so far they are willing to accommodate us to discuss the proposal which was already sent to them. We are awaiting a response from them.”
“However it is not to say we are ruling out any potential sponsors. It is not to say that Banks have been given exclusive rights or that they are the sponsors yet, we have not gotten that response yet. It’s just that they have been on board since last year and it’s easier to engage them” he said.
