WHOSE ROLE IT IS?

Oct 12, 2008 Sports

Parliamentary Secretary within the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sport Steve Ninvalle is up in arms about the relationship his Ministry and the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) are having right now.

Ninvalle, who along with Minister Dr. Frank Anthony are the principal architects of the Inter-Block Football Competition that is currently being played in several communities across the country, was reacting to a release from the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) which stated that the GFF did not gave permission to city clubs Santos and BK International Western Tigers to appear in a friendly encounter as part of the under-card of the Plaisance Inter-Block Football final scheduled for today, at the village’s Community Centre ground.

According to Ninvalle, he had contacted GFA President Troy Mendonca sometime ago asking for his blessings pertaining to the two clubs appearing on the fixture in a friendly engagement and was given approval by the President.

However, he subsequently received word from the GFA informing him that the GFF had contacted the GFA, apprising them that they do not have the authority to sanction matches played outside of their jurisdiction.
Ninvalle said that the correspondence has raised some doubts in at least one of the teams’ management, but more importantly it also brings into question the purpose of the GFA and further the positioning of the governing body as it relates to the development of football.

“This is two teams scheduled to play in a friendly encounter and to have the GFF question the decision of the GFA sanctioning a game that has little meaning other than valuable practice for the respective units’ to my mind borders on pettiness or can be interpreted as a show of absolute authority.”

Ninvalle added that he wishes none of the above is correct, but noted the increasing frustration by the GFF to support activities planned by the Ministry.

He gave as examples the lack of support by the Referees Council towards the Inter-Block Competition even after writing them seeking their assistance to run the event and to meet GFF President Colin Klass as early as possible.

“What we got was a reply indicating that Klass was presently out of the country, but one would have thought that the response might have contained a possible date upon his return or whether he is willing to meet us,” Ninvalle pointed out.

He, however, was adamant that the Ministry would not be stymied by the recent gridlock, but will be forging ahead with their plans which he reminded is to assist in the development of the game throughout the country.

Meanwhile, GFA President Troy Mendonca in invited comments said that he really thought that they could have given approval for the game, but later learnt that they could not.

“Being a fairly new executive, we knew nothing of that, meaning the clubs had to get approval from the GFF,” Mendonca related.

He said that his Association does not have a problem with the clubs playing a friendly game outside of Georgetown since they were not scheduled to play in any matches sanctioned by the GFA on that day.

President of BK International Western Tigers Gordon Gilhuys in a hard hitting response to concerns about today’s friendly fixture between the clubs told Kaieteur Sport that something is radically wrong with the system of administration of the sport locally.

“The GFF should direct whatever concern they have with the GFA and them let them advise us on the way forward.”

“As long as they have nothing to tell us, we are going ahead, they do not contribute anything to my club and if we want to develop football in Guyana, we have to work with the Ministry and within the communities,” Gilhuys declared.

He said that the GFF is doing nothing for the clubs and their decision does not make any sense, adding that they are going to play a friendly game and nothing else.

“It is not that we are going into another sub-association to play in a tournament, my players need the practice and I do not see why the GFF should get involved in myopic issues.”

The learned Magistrate pointed to more important matters for the GFF to deal with including the national team’s preparations to contest the Digicel Caribbean Cup.

Santos’ Representative Rawle Adams in his remarks said that they haven’t received permission, but were trying to obtain such.

“The last time I spoke to GFF General Secretary Noel Adonis he told me that no permission was granted, but we are still trying to sort out the issue.

Adonis for his part told Kaieteur Sport that they were not in receipt of any request from the Organisers seeking permission for the two teams to play.

“We saw something in the press and we got word that the GFA had given permission, so we wrote them reminding them that it was not their responsibility to grant approval to the teams, but the GFF.”

He indicated that he really does not know what exactly the current state of affairs is, but admitted that there seems to be some technical implications.