Legendary American football coach, Vince Lombardi, famously uttered, “Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will be judged by only one thing – the result.”
While the aforementioned proclamation applies to the universal reality of life, it is in the strata or dimension of the sports world, specifically the species of a professional ilk, where the sentiment takes on a notorious undertone.
After all, sports, both on and off the field of play, performance and commercial to be exact, are defined by this empirical truth.
In Guyana, and particularly in the discipline of football which is of the amateur strain, one group is synonymous with the philosophy and doctrine of results. They are the Petra Organization, an entity which is led by its experienced principals, Troy Mendonca, and Marlon Cole; and whose name is taken from the famous archaeological site in Jordan.
A conglomerate, whose diverse makeup is a representation of our cultural reality, and whose intellectual aptitudes have created a systemic and structured approach to development, has, more importantly, evaded the alluring mentality of the silver-tongued breed of sports administrators, which has become a common and conventional as the local rainy season.
Though the reader may be rightly justified in being wary of such a compliment given the checkered past of local football and the relevant ‘tailored suits’ that have ruled over its existence, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and in this regard, the group’s curriculum vitae stands as a testimony to their accomplishments following 15 years of continuance.
Everything has a beginning, and that honour is bestowed upon the Courts Pee Wee Boys U11 Championship, which ushered the entity into mainstream relevance and was eventually followed by equally important events, though not in chronological order, such as the Smalta Girls Pee Wee, Milo Secondary Schools Championship, Magnum Futsal Championship, Limacol Championship, Turbo Energy Drink Knockout Tournament, ExxonMobil U14 Boys and Girls Championship,
GuyOil/Tradewind Tankers U18 League, and the KFC Goodwill U18 International Series. Certainly an unmatched resume! Even their contributions to the rise of street football are well documented. A true renaissance group if there ever was any locally.
However, it is in their acquisition of the Digicel Football Championship, an event which is regarded as the Holy Grail of Secondary Schools Football, and which suffered a six-year hiatus, has unquestionably concretised and epitomised their status as the pre-eminent football group on local soil.
Clearly, their storied contribution, and the results to be exact of their local football developmental programme, must have been the primary reason for this noteworthy attainment and seminal moment.
After all, the Digicel Schools Tournament has never been coordinated by a private promotional entity, giving more importantly, further credence to the confidence that the corporate community has shown to this flourishing outfit.
At the ‘association level’, the identical assurance cannot be said of their colleagues! Candidly, second-to-none would be a grave understatement for any objective and cultured ‘animal’.
Without the Petra Organization, the visibility of football, especially of the school persuasion, which is often a disregarded stratum, would certainly remain as a figment, to put it mildly.
However, their momentous acquisition has also raised a few inquiries. Was the Petra Organization the first group offered this prestigious opportunity? Moreover, was the GFF considered or even offered the role prior to Petra’s acquisition? If such is the case, why didn’t the GFF, the local administrator of association football, have the capacity to resuscitate the competition? Additionally, were budgetary issues the bugbear which resulted in the federation failing to acquire this culturally significant project, paving the way for its current holders?
So many questions and of course no responses!
If any of the aforementioned proves to be accurate, it would point to the fact that the GFF continues to remain the paragon of incompetence, and a caricature of administration and common sense, which is the worst-kept secret in the public domain, especially in the football fraternity.
Dissenting voices bring about conversations that eventually, in cultural societies, lead to change. In Guyana that tends to translate to discriminatory practices. However, let’s not abandon the truth in the name of sparing feelings.
Unlike many of the other promotional entities and association bodies that are well-regarded for serving in various roles inclusive of acting as the culmination of a season or year, the Petra Organization is a complete season and calendar. There is no vacation time or escape for a group that encapsulates an entire year with a football programme that is structured by age group and gender.
An examination of their record is akin to an Iliad, though scrutiny of their contemporaries by an independent mind can develop and evolve into a despondent labour.
Maybe the time is opportune for the entity to be afforded a national profile.
Given the despondence that seems to have found quite the dwelling in local football, the Petra Organization based on their empirical past and enterprising future, will undoubtedly be an improvement on the current football czars, who have unarguably relegated the beautiful game to the confines of a catacomb.
Football for years has not been run into the ground, but underground, by administrators whose existence have been allowed to continue due to a small cadre of inept personages and politically savvy ‘useful idiots’.
American author Ken Blanchard stated, “There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when it’s convenient. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses – only results.”
The abovementioned aptly describes the difference between the Petra Organization and the other entities. They were and still are the only choice!
