Georgetown Football Association (GFA) President Otis James, has become the first head of a sporting association to throw his support behind candidate Kashif Muhammad for the vacant role of Director of Sport.
This was disclosed during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport yesterday. According to James, who once served as FIFA Referee, “I think he would be a good candidate for the post because of his track record in organizing things and getting things done. While I don’t know of his qualifications, I know of his abilities to organize and manage, if he is given the job we will throw our support behind him.”
Muhammad, who is a native of the Mining Town of Linden, is seen as the frontrunner to replace former Director of Sports Christopher Jones at the helm of the organization. The long serving football administrator a co-director of the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation, rose to prominence on the back of successfully staging the Kashif and Shanghai year-end Football Championship for more than 22 consecutive years.
James conceded that while his support of Muhammad does not reflect the will of the entire GFA executive, he noted, “I can’t say or speak for the GFA as an executive that they will support his candidacy, but I personally am supportive of it because of his ability to organize things especially national events. I personally will support him if he is appointed but I would also support anyone who is appointed that has the interest of sport. Though he is the only name that is making the rounds for the post, I will support him because of his track record.”
According to James, he doesn’t envision football receiving disproportionate benefits in comparison to other disciplines if Muhammad is eventually appointed to the helm of the NSC.
“Not only football, sports can generally benefit. When you see the local track and field schools championship, the Inter Guiana Games, those are the things that he would really want to put in place and when an individual has certain qualities, he would be a good person for the job. I don’t think football would get an undue advantage, he has organized music shows and basketball tournaments before so I don’t think football would be the only sport that would benefit or have an advantage with him being there at the helm of the NSC.”
Asked if the position of NSC Director ought to be advertised in an effort to solicit a larger pool of possible candidates, James declared, “I don’t think it should be advised, that to me is the right hand person to the Minister of Sport, so it must be someone who you can trust. I think it should be an appointed position and not an advertised position.”
He added, “And I honestly think it’s time that you put sports people in sport positions.Often you see many people in positions that don’t suit them. I am eagerly awaiting to see the National Sports Commission board announced, oftentimes you see individuals that have no interest in sports and are there because of their personal gain in sport.”
