On 14th July, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) issued a media release announcing a new fee structure for match officials and referees for the 2023/24 football season. According to the statement, the structure, which will take immediate effect, was agreed upon by the GFF and the Guyana Football Referees Council following weeks of consultation with several stakeholders.
“This Fees Structure will apply to all categories of football competitions/tournaments being organized in the jurisdiction of Guyana. Members of the GFF and private promoters are therefore obliged to comply with this Fee Structure,” the dictum pronounced.
In the spreadsheet issued with the statement the range of varying fees are listed in four categories: Nursery, Youth, Men and Women, which, in turn, are further subdivided. Nursery is split into PeeWee (Ages 6 -11) and the Under-13 age group, while the Youth category covers six age groups extending from Under 14 to Under 20. The Men’s Division is categorized under three headings, namely, League, Knock-Out and Masters, with the Women’s having the single classification of League. Barring the exception of the PeeWee category, for which no fees are applicable, the charges stipulated for managing football games fluctuate, depending on which organisation is coordinating the tournament, i.e. Associations/Affiliate, GFF Youth and Senior, GFF-MoE (Ministry of Education), Private Promoters – National and Regional, Year End Tournaments, International Games, International and Local Futsal/Beach Soccer, and Practice Games.
These new fees range from $4,500 for any Under-13 age group games, regardless of coordinator, to $14,000 for the matches in the Under-18 and Under-20 Youth categories sponsored by National Private Promoters. Fees for the Women’s matches commence at $8,000 for Futsal/Beach Soccer, jump to $10,000 for practice matches, before escalating to $18,000 for GFF/Affiliate games, $24,000 for Year-End tournaments and $28,000 for International fixtures. The cost of hiring GFF officials for Men’s tournaments vary from $10,000 for Masters matches, $20,000 for GFF League games, $28,000 for international fixtures to $40,000 for games sponsored by National Private Promoters, and for Year-End tournaments. These numbers represent substantial increases – over 100 percent in some instances – since the subject was last addressed in 2017.
In addition to the new fees, the GFF has imposed a few terms and conditions. Tournament organisers will be required to make a 50 percent deposit to the GFF for all officiating match fees prior to the commencement of the competition. Organisers will also be required to cover the costs of refreshments and the travel of match officials, with the latter element subject to the variable dictates of venue location, start times and whether overnight stays will be necessary.
Fanatical followers of the sport and even casual observers would probably be among the first to jump to the support of the referees and the linesmen, citing the difficult job they have to execute, handling both unruly players and supporters, the escalating cost of living, and the purportedly large profits garnered by National Private Promoters, mostly at the end-of-year tournaments. Let’s set aside the topic of increases in the officiating fees – exorbitant as they might be, in some instances – for the time being. Instead, let’s examine the reason behind this not surprising manoeuvre by the GFF.
At present, the GFF still owes referees and linesmen $5 million in fees for matches they officiated in, some of it dating back as far as 2014, during the reign of a previous administration. This publication understands that these football officials have repeatedly experienced great difficulty over the years in extracting their hard-earned compensation from the GFF. There seems to be a sustained pattern of paying them for a few tournaments a year, long after their completion, and then making ad infinitum promises to deliver outstanding payments when the next tournament is approaching. If this is in fact the case, then these actions can only be deemed continuous exploitation. One referee confirmed that several of the officials have not yet been paid for the much heralded and well sponsored ‘One Guyana President’s Cup’ Tournament which was played during the last Christmas season and concluded on New Year’s Day.
At present, the Digicel Secondary Schools Football Championships, which kicked off on 24th June, is in full swing under the auspices of the Petra Organisation, a national promoter. There are approximately 130 teams participating in this competition, which will see 32 teams advancing to the playoff rounds. In managing this enormous undertaking, Petra, in coordination with the sponsor, has opted to pay officiating match fees on completion of the matches, as per the nightly ritual of the grassroots coordinated ‘Street Football.’ Why doesn’t the GFF follow this simple format? Surely the demand for 50 percent deposits for match officiating fees will put a severe stranglehold on promoters’ cash flow. This prompts the question, is this a surreptitious way of controlling/limiting who can organise football tournaments?
Or, is this a direct response from the GFF to the lucrative Digicel Secondary Schools Football Championships being run by a private promoter? In 2017, Digicel oversaw the coordination of the competition, utilizing the GFF officials and compensating the GFF for their services. Is this new clause perhaps another draconian measure of trying to exert total control over the local game? It’s not the first time the current GFF administration has attempted to extract money from the smaller coffers elsewhere in the sport. At an Extraordinary Congress on Saturday, 16th December, 2017, to approve the 2016 Financial Statements, the GFF President uttered these fateful words, “We presented the 2018 schedule for competitions which shows the consolidation of football activities that will bring as you would notice in our most recent press release greater regulation of every aspect of football, including Street Football in particular.” Then he added, obviously contemplating the generous prize money meted out by the sponsors of Street Football, “…to levy three per cent against the total prize monies or the total gate income, whichever is the higher of the two…”
What next from the GFF? What about the enormous annual funding they receive from FIFA, said to be in the vicinity of US$250,000? Where are those dollars, given for the development and promotion of the game, going? Administration? Now, as the hopeless mismanagement of the game continues, the GFF is shamelessly introducing a backdoor tax, which on the surface appears to be of no benefit to the local game. This organisation needs to be reminded that like all sporting regimes everywhere, it should be working for the good of the game, not the other way around.
