Dear Editor,
I am an overseas based Guyanese who is an ardent football supporter. I visited Guyana for the Mashramani Celebrations and saw Guyana oppose Cuba in two friendly Internationals and I was impressed. I take my hat off to the GFF and Mr Shabazz, the Trinidadian Coach and his local counterparts.
Whilst here I learnt of Guyana hosting a CFU Futsal Tournament so I opted to stay for a few more days to witness this tournament. I was and still am of the view that this tournament would have done good for the country, tourism, sports, football, the people’s morale and confidence. Unfortunately it has been cancelled from Guyana.
I have been following the cancellation, press, and I would like to make a few comments, and recommendations.
On Wednesday 27th February 2008 the day before the Guyanese delegation left for the CFU Congress, they were reliably informed that Suriname and St Maarten had indicated their unwillingness to participate in Guyana due to the two infamous recent incidents; I further learnt that on Friday 29th February 2008 the Suriname Embassy called the GFF Office and said that the Surinamese wanted a guarantee that the players would have been safe. The caller from the Embassy who is a Surinamese and who is associated with football said that he told the Suriname officials that there are soldiers and police from Moleson Creek to Georgetown on the streets and it would have been safe. He further told them that the tourney would have been in Georgetown, away from the crime areas. He said that they told him that they would have to pass the east coast, he said at this time he had given up in frustration. So he was instructed to make contact with the GFF which he did.
The St Maarten folks also wanted a guarantee and this was done via e-mail. But how can the GFF give any real guarantee for players safety when the government itself can give no such guarantee?
Mr Steve Ninvalle said that the GFF was not in a position financially to host the tournament. But CFU had pledged a sizable amount of cash towards the hosting of the tournament. GT&T and Banks DIH were on board, jerseys and caps were already made for this tournament. You will see them soon; magazines were in the process of being printed. At least three hotels were giving the GFF some concessionary rates, prices as low as US$15 per person. Mr Ninvalle said that persons close to the GFF told him that the GFF had no funds and that they knew one year ago of this tournament. Well Mr Ninvalle your source is probably obsolete, because it was only late last year GFF were informed that they would be hosting the tournament. It was on 22nd January 2008 that CONACAF announced the fixtures and dates, check the CONACAF web site. I may agree with Mr Ninvalle that the GFF was not financially capable of hosting the tournament but was Mr Ninvalle aware that the government was approached for financial assistance to host this national tournament. A few months ago he said that the government fully supports sports and football.
What I thought Mr Ninvalle should have done was to sympathise with the GFF, the players and the public for what the “insurgents” (somebody’s word) did to the country, and assist in reassuring the nation and its sports persons that they (the government) will try to bring back some normalcy to the country instead of playing the proverbial ostrich.
Yours faithfully,
Gerald Joseph
