What’s next?

Dec 16, 2009 Sports

By Rawle Welch

Speaking with many of the sport’s true lovers, I got a peculiar pitch of vagueness as to what will happen next following the recent visit of the greatest footballer that ever lived Brazilian Edson Arantes Do Nascimento (King Pele) to Guyana.

Football is the biggest sport globally and even here despite all the controversies that surround its leadership, the same honour could safely be attributed to its status.

However, in spite of the plethora of tournaments that have mushroomed over the past 4-5 years, the sport is still struggling to enjoy real development and this could be the primary reason that has characterised the hesitant outlook by many of the knowledgeable pundits whom I’ve interacted with prior to writing this missive.

In a normal setting, a visit by the most celebrated player to ever play the game would most likely create the impetus for the local governing body, business sector and the government to collaborate and draft a well defined policy to inject life into the sport in a more structured and organised manner which could initiate the move to lift Guyana’s profile on the world stage to a higher level.

Guyana’s football, despite the production of a number of talented players, who many feel were naturally endowed, has for many years been hindered by administrative squabbles, Government’s rebuke and inequitable Private Sector support, but many are hoping that the move by King Pele, who as was seen by the thousands of fans that turned up at the National Stadium last Sunday and those that sat glued to their televisions, to integrate the different factions when he roared the instructive word ‘Love’ three times could instigate a push for them to come together for the good of the game.

The King departed last Sunday after witnessing the opening of the Kashif & Shanghai Annual Football Tournament and for someone with his vast experience and knowledge of the game, he probably would have detected certain technical deficiencies and perhaps the Government of Guyana through the auspices of the Brazilian Embassy could ask for some level of assistance to fast track our development.

Pele’s visit was a short one and even though his ability to detect areas of administrative deficiency is unknown, a few hints might have been dropped during conversation with the different groups.

However, the mere fact that we were able to bring him here is a huge positive and should not be allowed to go to waste.

We sincerely hope that all the parties concerned could very soon, if it hasn’t occurred already, get their acts together and move the sport forward.

We await the disclosure of any plan that could validate that the parties intend to convene a meeting and engage in constructive discussions to get the sport budging in a positive direction.