In the same issue of the Stabroek News, (Friday October 27) that ran on its back page a captioned photograph of the incumbent executive of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) seeking a ‘third term’ in office there appeared on page 29 a report headlined “Golden Jaguars owed match fees since August by GFF.”
This is by no means the first publicly revealed instance of the GFF being cited for tardiness in ‘making good,’ in a timely manner, on financial commitments to individuals and groups providing services to the game. That said, for the Federation to not to, over such a protracted period of time, suitably and with timeliness, compensate a Golden Jaguars soccer team that has already delivered on its contractual obligation to the Federation and its duty to country, is, to say the least, a travesty. Such a travesty, surely, requires robust intervention at the level of the state. Here, one should add that the state’s enduring failure to take really meaningful action to embrace sport, as a whole, as a critical cog in the country’s overarching development wheel and in the process to remain seemingly indifferent to the inability of some of the various bodies responsible for the development of sport is an unacceptable indifference.
It is no secret that the GFF has, on various occasions, fallen short in terms of the discharge of its obligations to the game and its interests. The same, it has to be said, applies to some of the other bodies responsible for attending to the well-being of various sports disciplines. Indeed, what has become a fairly widespread indifference within the game to the quality of service offered by the GFF has become the subject of what, sometimes, are ugly outbursts of protest, which the Federation has, inexplicably, managed to survive. If some of this may appear to be the self-serving pursuits of would-be cliques of rivals for office, the incumbents themselves, frequently make a less than worthwhile case for their retention of office. Nor is the GFF the only specialized sports administration that appears to be repeatedly indifferent to its obligations to the particular discipline for which it has responsibility. Government, through its abject failure has, over time, palpably relegated the portfolio to the bottom of the political pile. Accordingly, it must take much of the responsibility for the incremental marginalization of sport as a national priority. Truth be told, over time, successive political administrations have used the sport-as-a-nation-builder sobriquet as a political slogan with which to cover the substantive marginalization of sport. Here it has to be said that in an era when investment in sport has become a preoccupation of most states, there exists no serious evidence at this time that Guyana is seizing the opportunity which sport affords to raise its international profile.
In the matter of the administration of football there continues to be issues with the timely delivery of compensation to stakeholders, including the Golden Jaguars for services rendered, not to the GFF, but to the nation as a whole. That said, whatever the problem, where our national football team is concerned government has a duty to ‘jump in’ with alacrity to remedy the problem. It is altogether unacceptable for a team wearing the ‘national colours’ to find itself jawing with a GFF that is regularly embroiled in controversy. When football teams wearing the Golden Jaguars colours do duty on behalf of the nation it is the responsibility of government to ensure that they receive timely and adequate compensation for their efforts. There are really no two ways about that. Afterwards, it is also the government’s responsibility to find ways of ensuring that the GFF, thereafter, acts in the best interest of the Golden Jaguars and, by extension, the nation. Incidentally, where the efficient delivery of services to football in Guyana is concerned one ought not to be unmindful that discourse arising in this editorial comes a matter of a handful of weeks before the incumbent GFF executive goes to the polls to seek a ‘three peat’ in terms of occupancy of office.
Instances of shabby treatment of sportsmen and women occurring across some of the disciplines even as this political portfolio continues to be adorned with ‘the full regalia,’ including a Minister and a Ministry of Sport, and departments responsible for the various aspects of sports administration, speaks volumes about our enduring lack of mindfulness of the globally acknowledged nexus between sport and nation-building. In Guyana’s particular instance, while we animatedly talk the talk, our legs fail us when we are required to walk the walk. It is high time that we start seeing the wood from the trees.
