High Handedness of GFF would not be accepted – Elite League quartet Maintains stance for arbitration

Nov 03, 2016 Sports

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By Franklin Wilson
Resolute that the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Executive has tinkered with the rules and regulations of the Stag Elite League (SEL) without due consultation and respect for the involved clubs, four of the eight original clubs are maintaining their stance that arbitration is necessary to resolve the impasse.
The four clubs, defending champions Slingerz FC of West Demerara, which has since sent a letter to the GFF on November 1st indicating that they are withdrawing from the league; Alpha United (on the verge of withdrawing); Pele FC and Georgetown Football Club (which stated it will follow the two leading clubs), yesterday hosted a press conference in the boardroom of Sambora Communications, West Ruimveldt to clear up a number of misconceptions that have been flying around.
Sharing the head table were Slingerz FC’s General Manager Colin Aaron, Odinga Lumumba – President and Owner of Alpha United, Faizal Khan – General Secretary GFC, Robbie Rambarran – President of Pele FC and chairperson of proceedings, Kareem Jones.
All the clubs reps were unanimous in stating that they are not against the expansion and in general changes to the SEL but they are all against the high handed approach being used by the federation in imposing such changes. According to them, “Dictatorship would not be allowed.”
The clubs are firm in their stance that a two-year agreement was signed which constitutes a contract between the two parties in relation to on and off the field matters of the league.
They noted that under the Normalisation Committee (NC) which was headed by Clinton Urling, consultation was beyond imagination.
Aaron noted that under the NC, every time they wanted to improve on the rules and regulations, there would be a meeting, however often noting that the GFF President, who was a part of Fruta Conquerors at the time, was very much involved and also signed off on the rules and regulations.
“So it’s strange now that Mr. Forde and Daniel from Conquerors are saying they have never signed anything other than some other document, that is lying blatantly, that is lying blatantly.”
All we are asking for is to consult, use the same process we went through in the initial stage for us to agree and disagree and come to common ground and move on from there.”
Reference was made to a private meeting that Forde held at his request with the clubs at Grand Coastal Inn of the East Coast of Demerara a few weeks ago. Aaron informed that at that meeting Forde said they were there to try and work out a compromise.
Forde informed that he was bringing in two teams but the clubs said that would not work. Lumumba, Aaron said, suggested that a playoff among the association champions including the two Forde was suggesting take place to give everyone an equal chance.
“He said no, no, no play off. We said well then it would be difficult for us to just accept two teams just like this. We said we wanted the tournament to play as we had agreed to in the first place, we do not want any modifications we will play just like this.”
When the suggestion was made, Aaron said that Forde told them that he can even better the existing prize money which was four million at the time.
“Four million, I can give you all five million, that’s two by five because its two halves but, you all have to give me the two teams, so I said no sir, we are following the constitution. The constitution is not up for sale.”
The GFF boss had read an extract of a document that was sent to him by Marco Leal of the CONCACAF legal department but Aaron is contending that Leal offered his opinion based on what the GFF had sent to him to solicit his views.
The Slingerz GM went as far as to say that FIFA and CONCACAF have not officially to date communicated with the GFF on this matter.
From the Grand Coastal interface to date, Aaron reported that there has not been any correspondence received from the GFF despite numerous correspondences to the federation from the aggrieved clubs.
“We’re being treated as four clubs or six clubs but not members. The parent body is showing total disregard and disrespect to the children, why? We wrote another letter asking for arbitration. I read in the papers that the same president said he don’t see no need to engage in mediation.”
Aaron explained that the GFF constitution makes provision for arbitration and this is a case where four members of the said federation are having a dispute with the executive. “The executive committee cannot make pronouncements on the dispute.”
There is no dispute that the GFF Exco has some amount of authority over, according to Aaron, who further emphasized that they {GFF} must also consult and they cannot operate as a power unto themselves.
Lumumba in his statement noted that football is an industry and once managed properly can become a multi-million dollar industry. He too said that they are not opposed to change but again, the process has to be above board.
The Alpha United owner posited that this is not football, it is politics. “The teams around here today have involved themselves in millions of dollars of sacrifice or investment to support and develop their club. When they signed the agreement whether it’s a contract, an agreement or promise, it was with the understanding that the organization would benefit substantially from the investment and that the rules and regulations that were agreed to would stay in place for a period of two years.”
Underlining the importance of the league, Lumumba said that no country in the world that dominates at the international level is without a top level league. He compared success at the highest level to the days when the likes of Clive Lloyd were produced out of first class cricket in those days.
“I don’t have a problem with change, the world is about change, life is about change, change must come and we can’t be opposed to change, we have a problem with the process. Why is it for the second year coming up, we suddenly want to disrupt the formula and bring in two clubs which look like they assure me would give you two votes? This is not football, this is politics because if it is football then you would go through a process to identify teams, you have Riddim Squad, you have Western, you have Den Amstel, you have Grove. You can pull 8 or 10 clubs together and in two, three weeks have a short tournament and let two teams come to the top if that’s what you want.”
Lumumba stated that it is obvious that they {GFF} want to handpick two teams to get two votes. “And this is bad for the process; it is bad for the leadership.” He also put forward that football should not be played for the remainder of the year.
When asked how this would affect Alpha ahead\of next year’s CFU Club Championship, he said that this is unchartered waters and he too thought of the impact this current impasse would have on his team as well as Slingerz, Guyana’s two representative teams.
“Instead of trying to be bullies, let us try to resolve this matter, bring in back Urling, bring in back the CONCACAF people who draft up the agreement to make sure we have an understanding of where we want to go. See if we can make compromises, see how we can work together.”
Khan made a call for Chairman of the GFF Disciplinary Committee Mr. Sanjiv Datadin to review the ban on president of the Slingerz FC which was imposed by the GFF president.
“Based on the context of the meeting, which if those that were present were honest would agree was very heated from the top table as well as those invited members.”
The GFC reminded that investments were made by the SEL based on agreements that were made before and these must be honoured.
“It’s very sad and it’s very disappointing to see the process in which these decisions have been made. Nobody is opposed to an expansion of this league; however, it’s the process in which this has happened, the massive losses that took place in year one, the players of the elite league are owed, clubs, those that worked around it.”
He suggested that making high handed decisions without consultations isn’t the way to go. Rambarran, who looked closely at the financial aspect, informed that the losses after year one was a huge amount to some $35.6M in the preliminary stages and there is a projected loss of 12 plus million dollars for year two.
He alluded to the FIFA President suggesting that he wants to see a bigger World Cup but consultations will take place before any change to the number of teams are decided upon.
The clubs are of the view that the GFF executive is out of sync with the reality of the importance
of community football pointing out that Forde’s explanation for the additional teams is more geographic than football.

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