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Apr 18, 2009 Sports
‘Win in CANCACAF with CONCACF’ Programme Director Keith Look Loy is of the view that for Guyana’s football to be impacting in the Caribbean and further afield, much more matches must be played.
Look Loy, also a former coach shared these sentiments during a press conference on Wednesday at the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Headquarters where plans for the National League under the Win in CONCACAF with CONCACAF Initiative were announced.
“If Guyana is to have a major impact at the level of CONCACAF football not only Digicel Cup but also Gold Cup and fight for a place in the later stages of World Cup qualifying then your domestic competition has to be the best possible level.”
To achieve this, Look Loy believes that the National League cannot play ten, eleven or twelve games.
“Next year, the ambition is to have your players who will be participating in that league plays 30 games, 40 games, we’ll have to look at it because this is what top international football requires. If an English player goes to the World Cup he doesn’t go on the basis of 12 games, he goes on the basis of 55 games a year or a Brazilian player goes on the basis of 60 games a year and this is what we have to talk about.”
The former coach said he understands the limitations here with regard to the weather and facilities but the maximum possible amount of games in the maximum possible time must be aimed for. He suggested that the league can kick off in March and continue to December like obtains in Trinidad and Tobago. “Conceivably, I don’t want to go that far of course we have to talk about it.” This year’s league will be run on a pilot basis from September to December involving 10 teams and will be reviewed in December.
The objective of the ‘Win in CANCACAF with CONCACF’ Programme is to get the National League off and running and it would eventually have to stand on its own since the FIFA/CONCACAF funding is for two years only.
Look Loy reiterated the fact that clubs who will be involved will have responsibilities to fulfill.
“The first responsibility will be that they should have ambition that they want to get to the top level because with ambition, then they will meet the requirements that we will set in terms of internal structuring, training people to market the sport and to stage games. But the key to it is the ambition to get to the top and just continuing to do business as usual.”
Teams will have to earn their place Look Loy declared noting that there is no automatic scenario that qualification for this year means you are in for next year.
“By structuring yourself and selling your games and showing that you want to move forward and showing that you want to qualify for 2010. It’s not just going to be a matter of who wins and who gets points.”
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