GFF boss Wayne Forde yesterday confirmed that the Golden Jaguars and Lady Jaguars home matches in the CONCACAF Nations League and Road to Gold W Cup Qualifiers, respectively will be staged in St. Kitts and Nevis and Suriname with the GFF set to incur costs of more than $US50, 000 for such an undertaking.
This was confirmed during a brief interview with Stabroek Sport yesterday. Forde said, “Both of the male games are playing in St. Kitts; we will play our home game, and Puerto Rico will play their home game. That’s the arrangement, and we will play both games in Suriname for the females.”
The Golden Jaguars will oppose Group D leader Puerto Rico on October 14th and 17th, respectively. The Golden Jaguars sit in second place on six points owing to an inferior goal difference.
Meanwhile, the Lady Jaguars, who currently sit in second place on three points, will play Suriname on October 25th and 29th, respectively.
“Every time we play outside of Guyana, it costs the federation an arm and a leg because we have to pay the country to host because, remember, we don’t have staff on the ground… We have to pay them to host and pay them to use their facility.”
According to Forde, partnerships and relationships that have been cultivated at this regional level do aid in the negotiating process to reduce the costs of such an undertaking.
“I think on average, it costs us between US$25,000 and US$35,000 whenever we take a game away from Guyana. But not only that, it also removes almost all revenue potential; all the revenue potential is affected negatively”, he explained.
The GFF was sanctioned US$5000, according to Forde in a prior interview with this publication, for the quality of the surface at the National Track and Field Centre, Leonora, after their Nations League encounter with the Bahamas on September 12th.
This resulted in the Lady Jaguars fixture against Dominica being subsequently moved to Wildey Park in Barbados after the venue failed to meet the requisite standards set by CONCACAF officials.
