<<<<<< Letter to the Sports Editor >>>>>>

Nov 16, 2008 Sports

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Some points for you to ponder as calls are made for Klass’ head

Dear Sir,
Please permit me space in your Newspapers to have a small say in the ongoing fiasco with regards to the call for Mr Klass to resign from the Presidency of the GFF.
In the late 80s Guyana were involved in Olympic Qualifiers against some Central American Countries, on our way to Guatemala via Miami, 3 players absconded to the USA. On our way to Mexico via Miami 14 other players also absconded. This resulted in Guyana being suspended for a number of years.
At that time I was the Assistant General Secretary of the then Guyana Football Association, the year was 1987. This eventually saw the resignation of Col Michael Atherley who was the President and Mr. Mark Bender who was the General Secretary. Mr. Maurice John who was the Manager was suspended by the National Sports Commission for a five year period for holding any Football Office.
In 1989, Mr Ulric Ceres was elected to the post of President and I was elected as General Secretary, Mr Colin Klass was elected as the 1st Vice President. Mr Ceres had good plans for the GFA but because of lack of financial support from the Government and Corporate Sponsors he called it a day before his two (2) terms was completed.
In 1990 Mr Klass filled the role as President (Ag). In the interim Guyana was suspended by FIFA for the team not honouring their obligation to play the return game against Mexico, because we only had six (6) players left. Mr Hamilton Green, the then Prime Minister ordered that the team return home and they will deal with the consequences. A number of players based in the USA had offered their Service to represent Guyana in that return match. Mr Lennox Arthur and Mr Mervyn Wilson were the Coach and Asst Coach respectively.
In 1991 Mr Klass was elected as the President. Guyana was suspended and it was a herculean effort on his part to get Guyana to be reinstated to FIFA we were slapped with a fine in excess of US $10,000. Due to excessive talks and pleading we were eventually allowed to play in football again, this suspension prevented us from playing in the 1990 WC Qualifiers.
I can recall Mr Klass using his own cash to attend meetings on behalf of the GFF and this went on for quite a long time, many sacrifices were made. I say all of the above to remind all on sundry when Football did not have money all was well now football has money all want to get on Board.
Remember there is a General Council who has the final say on how football is run in Guyana, people may say that they are loyal to Mr Klass, that is another story. Could you show me any Government, Organization, Association, Federation, whatever, that the members etc are not loyal to the leader, of course at times there are some dissentions which eventually is trashed out amicably.
Instead of people asking the GFF what is being done with the money, they should ask how these players air fare are paid for, they should also find out how the Accommodation, Meals, Transportation, Stipend and other Allowances are paid for. Guyana is probably the only Country in the World whose Government does not contribute significantly to Guyana Football Development. Do some research? All of the Caribbean Countries which has football stadium is owned by the respective Governments.
Does the England FA have their own ground, does the US Soccer League have their own Stadium, do Brazil Federation own their own ground. I do not think so. It took FIFA to donate to countries money to build football related facilities. USA gets the FIFA Grant too but the Government and Sponsors put millions into football we are only joking with football in Guyana.
Persons are saying that we do not have our own facility. If, the Government did not reclaim the land at UG we would have our own facility today. We were given a piece of land on the East Coast which was deemed unsuitable. It took a foreigner to donate to us a piece of land at Parika for us to develop. It is taking us an eternity to get the paper work done which is no fault of ours but the system.
I think the players should be a bit more considerate, these were the same players who did so well two years ago, what went wrong, are the losing their skill and ability. Are they not focused, all of them play Professionally, Is not receiving stipend made them lose, Is it not wearing Adidas or Nike jersey to train make them lose, Is it not putting them at Pegasus make them lose, come on man lets be real.
I think the players are not serious, they are not delivering. Win and you can demand do not behave like the West Indies Cricket Team.
We should all put our shoulders to the wheel and make this thing work and stop idle talk, this is we thing. Only who live in the house knows what goes on in it, if you don’t know ask. You will hear more later?
Lawrence Griffith
Competition Coordinator

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