The unfortunate flooding of various regions can be considered a national disaster, as it affects many. The same could be said, albeit from a figurative standpoint, of the Golden Jaguars’ disastrous and embarrassing campaign and exit in the first round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.
A record of three losses – 4-0 Trinidad & Tobago, 3-0 St. Kitts & Nevis and 2-0 Puerto Rico – alongside a win – 4-0 against The Bahamas – certainly is not a success story worthy of plaudits and adulation. However, the football czars and their sympathizers, would have the sports populace believe otherwise in the name of development and exposure.
It seems the premise of international football continues to be lost and escapes the visionless psyche of the current football administration. While exposure is a tenet of international play, competitiveness galvanised with the sole purpose of progression and advancement, is the ‘modus operandi’ of the senior level, especially in a World Cup or tournament year.
Once again, mediocrity reigns supreme in our football existence. But should we expect better, given that this level of ineptitude has become as common as the rain in June. After all, football’s visibility prior to the unfortunate scourge of Covid-19, was relative to the Loch Ness monster sighting.
Yet still, the GFF in its wisdom fitting of the biblical three wise men, opted to institute a transition policy for the senior programme, which arguably had its best chance in recent memory to progress to the second round of the qualifiers.
One has to wonder, is the same approach and quirky ideology going to be utilised at the upcoming Gold Cup Playoffs? Why wasn’t that posture instituted before at the 2019 championships which featured more than 16 foreign born players, many of whom were instrumental in securing Guyana’s maiden appearance at the prestigious event?
Envisage when a 2-0 loss, the result of their last group match, can be seen as a progressive outcome and/or viewed in a positive light, given how dismal the team has performed during their campaign. That is glorified mediocrity all in the name of exposure.
But should improvement be expected from a programme that has certainly gone downhill and is encroaching on the label of laughing stock within the Caribbean region. New adjectives need to be created to describe Guyana’s football landscape. Development is certainly not one of them. Anyone who believes otherwise, is certainly not a purveyor of facts and is more a resident of the fantasy kingdom of Hyrule.
Interestingly enough, the GFF decided to feature an infomercial during the halftime break of their final group match. The scripted piece, which celebrates and illustrates the developmental concepts of the entity, felt like a campaign advertisement, a propaganda piece from a communist regime that if fact checked would expose the hollowness of its claims.
While there are many claims to dissect during the promotional film, the most egregious invention was their emphasis on aiding the development of women’s football. That is nothing short of laughable and should be part of an act at a comedy club.
Evidence to the contrary can be easily submitted to counter this false marketing. The Always Women’s Developmental League, launched in October 2018, officially concluded in January 2020. It was typified by numerous walkovers, resumptions and postponements before its eventual conclusion.
Promoting gender equality is another laughable claim of the advertisement in view of the fact that the GFF never paid the Lady Jaguars match fees, a distasteful act perpetrated for more than four years.
It was only brought to the public’s attention after the women’s team on April 7, dispatched a letter to Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Charles Ramson Jr., highlighting the unequal allocation of resources by the local governing entity to the programme.
Developing beach and futsal was another assertion, yet they hardly staged events of this nature and did not participate in both Concacaf Championships, which were contested this year. The status and function of the ATC’s is for another discourse, such is the travesty associated with this machination.
However, let’s remain focussed on the subject at hand. The technical director continues to be the invisible man of Guyana’s football, whose expected role should be on the development of local content and subsequent improvement of the national product.
This certainly has not occurred and it is evident by the abysmal displays of the senior programme, of which he is also culpable alongside the current head-coach due to his status as the GFF’s guiding light. Since the technical director’s appointment in 2016, nothing tangible from a policy or programme perspective, can be illustrated or displayed to serve as part of his legacy on the development of Guyanese football.
The time has come for a complete overhaul of our national programme, starting from the helm. Individuals who are more in tune, not only with football science and lingo, but the local culture should be allowed to shepherd the programme forward.
To compete or to develop at the senior level should never be the question for learned men, administration and technical, who claim to understand the intricacies of the discipline. It is time for change. Only then will another national disaster and subsequent embarrassment be avoided.
