Englishman Ian Greenwood, Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Technical Director, will conclude his tenure in March, bringing to a close a five-year relationship with the organization.
This was confirmed by an official release from the federation.
According to the correspondence, Greenwood coordinated the daily national football programmes, which created a sustainable and holistic foundation for the future growth of the game locally.
“Greenwood, a UEFA A license holder and former coach at Leeds United and Huddersfield Town, led the design, creation and implementation of a new national football philosophy, development programme, the GFF’s ground-breaking Academy Training Centres and talent pathway, with a focus on nurturing youth and coaches across Guyana through age-specific curricula”, the release stated.
During his tenure, the Golden Jaguars debuted at the 2019 Gold Cup, the U15 Boys won the nation’s first invitational international youth tournament, the U20 women’s team secured a quarterfinal berth in the U20 Championship, and the U17 women’s team reached its first ever Concacaf Championship.
Similarly, the total number of national team engagements increased 142%, with a rise of 567% in female youth international matches and a jump of 344% for male youth teams.
Greenwood stated, “Serving football in Guyana has been a huge privilege for me and I want to say thank you to the entire football community for its support in the last five years as I conclude my stint here. I am deeply proud of what we have achieved together since 2016, especially in terms of developing young talent and coaches across Guyana and strengthening the GFF’s technical capacity, and I will look back fondly on my time here as I take the next steps in my career.”
He further said, “Guyana has such huge potential in football and I believe we have now laid the foundations for that potential to be realized in the future. I would like to thank President Forde, the Executive Committee and the GFF administration for the opportunity to join the team and wish them all the very best for the future.”
Greenwood also transformed Guyana’s domestic coaching structure following a lack of structure prior to his appointment, affording 75 coaches the opportunity to attain Concacaf coaching qualifications in the D-B licensing categories.
He was also pivotal in the establishment of the Academy Training Centre and grassroots developmental initiatives by training and utilizing Technical Development Officers, which increased the GFF’s technical capacity amongst its membership.
Meanwhile, GFF President Wayne Forde said, “Ian’s appointment has proven to be a huge success for the GFF and football in Guyana, especially given that the scope of our initial ambitions and the lack of suitably qualified homegrown talent at the time required the recruitment of a specialist from overseas.”
According to Forde, “Ian has been instrumental in capacity building and upskilling our talent pool to help us avoid that situation in the future. He has also been a very popular figure among our staff and community, who worked hard to assimilate into our culture and to become one of our own. His impressive legacy in developing our football strategy, staff, coaches and players will continue to have a positive impact on Guyanese football for many years to come, not least in the roll out of our nationwide network of Academy Training Centres and his achievements in turning around our coaching structure.”
He further said, “We have been delighted with his professional work ethic and commitment to the cause, as well as the wide-ranging results on the ground that are there for everyone to see. Our youth development structure is now regarded by FIFA and Concacaf as a model of best practice for the Caribbean region. As an adopted son of the soil, we will miss Ian and wish him every blessing as he returns to the UK and moves on to the next stage of his evolving career in football.”
The release also disclosed that the process to find a replacement has already commenced, with further details scheduled to be revealed in the future.
