FIFA has confirmed that the recently concluded Statutes Revision Process of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) constitution is an ongoing exercise amongst its 211 member associations in a bid to improve governance and transparency.
This was confirmed in a release from the federation. FIFA Member Association Manager Sofia Malizia, stated in the release, “One of FIFA ́s primary objectives is that all of its members, shall comply with their obligations as provided in the FIFA Statutes. In this respect, GFF, as a member of FIFA and CONCACAF, must ensure that their statutes fully comply with the mandatory provisions and requirements contained in the Statutes of FIFA and CONCACAF. Furthermore, FIFA encourages all member associations to adopt additional principles of good governance and best practices in their statutes and regulations.”
She further said, “In this context, the revision process which is being carried out with the GFF is something that FIFA is doing with the 211 members associations, and in particular, in the Caribbean, we have finished and we are carrying out the process in all the federations in due time. Consequently, we can confirm that a large number of members in the Caribbean region (and CONCACAF as a whole) are currently conducting Statutes revision processes as required by FIFA/CONCACAF.”
The missive was in response to Secretary of Buxton United Football Club Eton Moses, who in an article on July 25th in this newspaper, questioned the rationale of the process, and if any other members within the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) were undertaking the same statutes exercise. Moses during the review process had also submitted a proposal for the revised GFF Statutes to contain an article that enables discussions and debates as “Matters Arising” from the minutes of the previous Congress before those minutes are approved.
Malizia further said, “The minutes are a tangible record of the meeting for its participants and a source of information for the Members of the GFF who were unable to attend. The points mentioned in the minutes shouldn’t ́ be discussed or debated, as they are topics with a final decision made by the Congress of the GFF. They are only submitted to the “subsequent” Congress to determine if all matters that were discussed are properly recorded.”
A joint FIFA/CONCACAF delegation comprising Malizia and One CONCACAF Manager Howard McIntosh, visited Guyana in June, to commence and administer the process, a procedure that featured consultations with members of the GFF and other football stakeholders.
The GFF had appointed a ‘Statutes Revision Committee’ to participate in the process, which was headed by National Women’s Football Association President Andrea Johnson. However, the overall composition of ‘Statutes Revision Committee’ was never disclosed publicly by the federation.
