President of the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) Troy Mendonca says that much more effort is needed to advance football and his association is prepared to go the distance to make the sport a success in Georgetown.

“Our focus this year is much of the same, but it is to effectively gear the junior players for their transition into the senior level along with continuously nurturing the young talent to bring them up through an effective system that would cause them not to fall back,” he said, in an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport. According to Mendonca most of the players in Guyana are not as advanced in their development as they should be and he is particularly interested in assisting young players and opening more opportunities for them. He said one of the reasons the players are lagging behind is because most clubs focus only on the senior players.  Mendonca said too many walkovers affected the GFA-organized tournaments and blamed this development on the fact that the clubs were not properly organized. “The GFA always tries to give ample notification to the clubs so as to let them get better prepared but even with this, walkovers are still forced.” he said, adding that his group has a number of plans for its players and clubs this year.

In 2009, the GFA organised tournaments including the Cellink Plus Premier League, Western Union First Division, DeSinco Under-19, Trix Under-17, Coca Cola Under – 15, the Chubby Under-13, Courts PeeWee Under-11 and the Guinness Futsal Competition all of which were applauded by the sponsors, clubs and affiliates for a job well done. Mendonca said the tournaments were just to test the players’ fitness and skill levels as well as to help them gain experience. It helped to prepare them for national competitions and the seniors in particular benefited as it helped them to gear up for a title victory. He said too, “my current team is by far one of the best prepared team there has been in a while [and] this year we will just continue to build on the success from last year.” The GFA head said his organisation executed its plan and achieved its goals in 2009 and has already scheduled a number of tournaments for this year.   The GFA has partnered with some major sponsors such as Banks DIH, Bryden and Fernandes and Western Union who have all pledged their continued support. “We have a good relationship with our partners because they show great interest in the sport and they have opted to continue assisting in football since our policy to always conclude a tournament and give them (sponsors) their money’s worth every time,” he said. Mendonca lauded corporate Guyana’s support of football and expressed the hope that more entities would come on board. He said too the Guyana Football Federation and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport have also given tremendous support.