The Lady Jaguars, Guyana’s National Senior Women’s team has written First Lady Arya Alli and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr., highlighting the one-sided and unequal allocation of resources by the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) to the programme.
“We are writing to express our frustrations around the unfair and inequitable distribution of resources and support provided to the female participants in comparison to our male counterparts,” the letter stated.
“We feel the impact of years of systemic bias. We have been relegated to second-class citizens because of our gender even though our records and accomplishments are amongst the best across the Caribbean region,” the letter added.
The Lady Jaguars programme, albeit being predominantly made up of foreign-born players from Canada and the USA, are the most successful football team which comes under the umbrella of the GFF.
The Lady Jaguars senior side became the first team, male or female, to qualify for the Gold Cup, a feat which took place in 2010, nine years before the Golden Jaguars. They also secured Guyana’s first ever appearance in the Concacaf Olympic Qualifier Championships which occurred in 2016.
Similarly, the Lady Jaguars have recorded the highest ever ranking of 75th, by a senior side, male or female, in 2018. They also became the first ever junior programme to secure a quarterfinal berth in 2020 following their participation in the Concacaf U20 championships.
“Despite these accomplishments, our Women’ Senior National Team has sat dormant for three years while the men’s team continues to play multiple games each year. Unlike the men’s programme, our coaches and staff are volunteers and our players receive no funding to offset the costs of national team participation. Families and players must make financial contributions so that we can have an opportunity to play,” the letter pointedly stated.
According to the GFF, each player on the Golden Jaguars team, which featured in the starting XI of the recently concluded FIFA World Cup Qualifiers in the Dominican Republic (DR), is to be paid US$350, while any player making an appearance as a substitute receives US$250. Unused substitutes are compensated in the sum of US$150, while every player in the squad receives a bonus of US$100 for a victory, and US$25 for every goal scored to a maximum of four goals.
The players had been given a per diem of US$50 for the first four days, although they were in the DR for 14 days. The GFF also stated that local players received reimbursement for transportation for training sessions [at the National Training Centre at Providence] during the preparation phase, with Georgetown players receiving $300 per session, while those from the East Coast Demerara and West Demerara received $400 each. Players hailing from Linden and Berbice were reimbursed the sum of $3,000.
“Imagine how disheartening it is to hear the men get paid for matches in addition to not having to buy their own practice kits or pay for their own practice fields. The financial support to the men’s programme at the exclusion of the women’s programme is wrong and must stop. Every member of our team has sacrificed to help drive the goal of elevating the role of women in the sport of football across Guyana. We are happy to serve as role models, but the burden should not be ours alone to bear,” the letter bemoaned.
“Many of the women who have signed this letter have been with the programme since 2009. We are united in our call for equal and fair treatment. We want to thank you for taking the time to hear our concerns and would like to request a meeting with you. We look to develop equality within football which will foster and nurture the next generation of female leaders across Guyana and the Caribbean”, the correspondence declared.
