Despite an eventful year, we managed to deliver – Klass

Jan 01, 2011 Sports

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By Rawle Welch

“Yes, I think that last year was an eventful year and more than ever before we were able to manage and deliver all aspects of the sport,” President of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Colin Klass told this newspaper during a review of the sport’s performance in 2010, at the entity’s Head Office yesterday.
Klass indicated that almost all the related areas that are set up to ensure the smooth delivery and advancement of the sport of football, the GFF was able to successfully run off and they are fully satisfied with the achievements for last year.
“I think the only setback we’ve had is the fact that the FIFA GOAL Project was not completed, but that situation is entirely not the fault of us or the Contractor because of the persistent rainfall that we’ve had coupled with the rise in the water table in the area,” Klass stated.
He said the staging of various programmes and courses both at the elite and junior development levels in addition to marketing, administration and even women’s football, all combined to create a fillip for the sport which has resulted in many of our personnel being internationally accredited.
The GFF Head commenting on the general performance of the sport last year said as far as he could recall, it might be the first time that Guyana was able to participate in all level of football and that in itself was a significant achievement.
“All in all I thought it was intense and challenging, but the sport benefitted holistically and that may be the main reason for our positive move in the FIFA rankings which credits countries for increased activity and encouraging results,”Klass disclosed.
Highlights
Standing ahead of everything was the performance of the Women, who made it to the final round of the CONCACAF Tournament and this is so because if you could remember that programme was a relatively young one.
We were able with the assistance of FIFA to reform our constitution and that has already been approved by the General Council.
Guyana’s move up the FIFA rankings should also be underscored and all these positive accomplishments are always pleasing and stand to benefit our players as well.
Even though we’re still facing the battle of financial sustenance, FIFA came on board in a mighty way and offered its affiliates a bonus and had it not been for that we probably could not have attained many of the set targets.
The fact that our national team was able to return to play in the USA after almost 21 years is another positive feat so these are some of the added incentives for last year.
Disappointments
Our major disappointment was the failure of our senior and under-17 teams to qualify for the Gold Cup and CONCACAF finals and we’ve already started to review these concerns.
Our on field performance needs to be more consistent, while the playing surfaces continue to be substandard in many regions.
The structure within the associations and clubs continue to engage our attention and while we were able to regularise Georgetown we still have to look at all the others which we intend to do early this year.
With the advent of the new constitution things have to change it will not be business as usual.
Local Competitions
The Super League has grown and these are also the words of Programme Director for the Win in CONCACAF with CONCACAF initiative Keith Look-Loy.
He is pleased with the development of the League which just completed its second staging and I think that the clubs are now realising that they must dedicate the time to improve the standard of the competition.
The standard has risen and even though we still have quite a lot to do, there is no doubt it has grown.
The women’s segment has been a success as well and we are currently in discussions with some other sponsors and their responses have been positive.
Local players
I think that due to the improvement in our ranking, many of our players are being sought and many of them are playing their trade in other countries. The opportunities for them have improved and once we’re able to perform consistently at a high level their fortunes will increase.
Setbacks
Sponsorship of our programmes remains elusive and despite the downturn in the world economy I feel that more could be done.
The Government is still not fully committed and that needs to change because in terms of honouring our social responsibilities the GFF, FIFA, CONCACAF and CFU have all done so.
We now need the support of other stakeholders and I would like to implore on the Government to re-introduce sports on the education curriculum from nursery to university.
Sports and education must go hand in hand and I feel that Guyana is among the few countries that does not have it as a written policy.
GOAL Project
We’ve been told by the Contractor that they will be going back to the location this month, but based on the weather forecast from the Meteorological Office, there is a likelihood that rain will continue for the next three months so we might be looking at a further delay.
Klass then extended best wishes for a prosperous New Year to all the supporters of the GFF and the sport of football.

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