FIFA’s motto reads: “For The Good Of The Game.”
Yet if that requirement was a yardstick used by world governing body to keep national associations in power, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) would’ve been ousted many times over.
Its latest flap surrounds the mishandling of the national team’s preparation for the Digicel Caribbean Cup Finals which, to put it mildly, has been far from being of any good to Guyana’s football.
Of course, non
e of the federation’s contretemps over the years have had more devastating effect on its players than this latest one.
The names Gregory “Jackie Chan” Richardson, Ronson Williams, Devon Millington and Anthony “Awo” Abrams are some of the most well known in the Guyana football fraternity.
The reason they are well known has everything to do with their good performances on the field in a Guyana context.
And, as has been the case for as long as the long suffering fan base cares to remember, the federation has gone out of its way to derail whatever limited scope for success national teams work for.
Any straight thinking individual would have been motivated by the Golden Jaguars success in qualifying for the Digicel Finals.
They have emerged from two rounds of tough competition in Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago and are poised to score Guyana’s best ever football accomplishment ever. Yet the behavior of the GFF executive suggests, they couldn’t care less that a chance for lucrative cash prizes for finishing in the top four in the final are at stake along with qualifying for the Gold Cup, where more money and indirect benefits are up for grabs.
Despite the looming windfall awaiting the Jaguars, the GFF could not be roused from its recalcitrant ways to ensure the team be given the best chance for success in Martinique.
It assembled a substandard lineup for the friendly game against Guatemala in Atlanta, USA, last week, where almost half of the starting lineup was missing.
In so doing, the enthusiasm of key players were doused and, to add insult to injury, the explanation provided by one top official was an insult to the intelligence even to the most casual of fans.
It was stated by GFF General Secretary, Noel Adonis, that the omission of starting forward Millington for the Atlanta game was due to a rotation policy for national selection, which has suddenly appeared out of the clear blue sky.
In his Stabroek News interview, Adonis did not explain why Abrams, Williams, Walter `Boyd’ Moore, and Shawn `Bubbly’ Beveney were omitted, thus one would have to assume they were also victims of the said rotation policy.
This wretched explanation flies in the face of competent sports team management, because no official in his right mind would replace half of its best players for a vital warm-up game prior to a team’s biggest assignment in decades, when the need for cohesion, and team morale is paramount. Moreso when the Jaguars’ management had to be scrambling for replacements that resulted in the selection of other US-based players who can hardly carry the jock-straps, as the 3-0 defeat by Guatemala suggested, of those omitted.
Sorry Mr. General Secretary, but no one is buying your explanation.
All football fans are aware the first day of April is a long time away.
The real reason for the dropping of Abrams, Millington, Williams and Moore is now the worst kept secret in Georgetown and again, the GFF has played true to form by throwing those players under the bus in failing to do enough to facilitate their traveling requirements to the United States.
The Colin Klass administration has grown so accustomed to chewing players, like Beharry’s gum and spitting them out. It seems incapable of ever making the players’ interests its number one priority in any testing situation.
Not for once it seems this administration is prepared to justify the salaries of a chosen few earned as part of the princely sum of US$250,000 it receives every year from FIFA.
Which brings us to the case of Richardson, the most celebrated of all current national players, who is back home and has indicated his readiness to resume his international career.
But lo and behold, the GFF, which has perpetrated the worse acts of maladministration and ill-treatment of players for 21 long years, wants an apology from Richardson for venting his frustration to the media after the squad, he was a part of, was abandoned with little food and proper accommodation, in Trinidad and Tobago two years ago.
Richardson, the former MLS Colorado Rapids man, who was an asset to Carolina Railhawks, in the United States second division this year, and whose ability on the forward line is badly needed, for the goal-shy Jaguars lineup, would be a vital asset to the team, if it is to make an impression in Martinique and qualify for its first ever Gold Cup.
At a time when countries around the world are constantly shaving the thin line between legal and illegal acts to have the best players represent their teams, the GFF is turning its nose up on the country’s number one striker.
The GFF can, however, remedy the situation by inserting Richardson into the national squad pronto.
