Politics and sports are combustible mixes that threaten football development

Dec 14, 2011 Sports

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Says Michael Benjamin  

 

The holiday season is upon us once again and heralds the popular Kashif and Shanghai football extravaganza. Few could actually envisage its humble beginnings from a four team, round robin format to its current 22 team extravaganza that has developed into a ‘must attend’ affair.
Undoubtedly, the tournament has grown and no one could refute the superb organizational skills of the K&S duo who, aided by the largesse of the corporate community, almost single handedly transformed a 4 team domestic scrubby to a gigantic national symbol that eventually outgrew the meager accommodation at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground, and is currently threatening a similar fate for the more spacious Providence National Stadium venue.

The fact that after only a few short years the K&S tournament has managed

to command a crowd that consumed the capacity of the venue speaks loudly of the popularity of the tournament not to mention the shrewd skills of its organizers in putting together a package worthy of massive attendance.
Undeniably, Guyanese of all walks of life now regard the tournament as a major aspect of the holiday entertainment and over the years has resolutely supported the venture. To this extent, team K&S developed from strength to strength and two years ago, surpassed all expectations when it hosted the King of football, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, AKA Pele, as the guest of honour.
The cost of hosting the football legend was astronomical but the organizers refused to baulk while reasoning that the long term benefits of the gesture would have compensated for the exorbitant sum expended towards the historical visit.  True to prediction, the two succeeding years witnessed immense returns, owing in part to that singular visit by the world football great.
However, just when it appears that years of hard work, supported by the historic Pele visit are about to fructify, the organizers have been hit by a deadly sucker punch that could possibly affect this year’s attendance level.
Simply put, the tournament which on the night of the finals, easily attracts a full house of more than 18,000 screaming, exhilarated football fans, could witness an alarming decrease in attendance if there is any truth to rumors of a recent call for its boycott by youth members of the political group ‘A Partnership for National Unity’ (APNU).
There is really no need to regurgitate the details or the authenticity of calls for widespread boycott of the tournament since such details have been placed in the public domain for sometime now and have attracted diverse opinions from the pundits.
It literally boils down to whether the political overtones would creep into the sports arena and distort its true nature or whether Guyanese are matured enough to shelve their partisan political ideologies for the proverbial FIFA motto ‘good of the game.’
Politics and sports are two drastically varying volitions that should be positioned at opposite ends of the continuum or at an even safer distance, on parallel lines. Further, brutal verbal and even physical confrontations have characterized the local political front and politicians’ involvement in sport is an extremely sensitive issue that raises the suspicion of most conscientious citizens.
It therefore stands to reason that a distinct line should be drawn if the two variables –sports and politics—are not construed as one and the same.  Local politics is a brutal, no holds barred volition with no quarters asked and none given. Walking a neutral line is near impossible as the organizers of the K&S organization have discovered.
Just when they seem set to rake in the rewards of years of sacrifice and commitment, the tournament is dogged by the damning unorthodox and political landscape that advocates rigid and uncompromising partiality for particular political groups. Such behaviours have characterized the local political front and rigidly drew the battle lines.
Indeed, years of hard work supported by the historic Pele visit are about to fructify but for the deadly scandal that could possibly see crowd support at the tournament, known to attract a full house of more than 18,000 screaming football fans at the finals, not to mention similar support at pre-finals games, dip to a negligible total.
The division of political affiliation has taken its toll where it is alleged that a particular member of the K&S group has compromised his standing in the public domain by allegedly casting his ballot for an undesirable political group.
Purported evidence has been making its rounds in cyberspace with the concomitant rumour mills churning out the theory of non support emanating from a certain political youth group. Late yesterday afternoon a follow up emanating from Demerara Waves has debunked those allegations.
But that is not the only battle that is facing the K&S duo as, whether by accident or design, executives of the Guyana Football Association are currently running off a tournament between teams excluded from their tournament with most of the matches scheduled to be staged in conjunction with theirs. The final of the GFA tournament is also scheduled for New Year’s night, the customary time for the K&S finals.
While competition is good for the soul and while the current GFA tournament must not be construed as adversarial to the yearly K&S football extravaganza, one wonders whether the very boycott that has affected K&S group might not transcend to the ongoing GFA tournament. Such rationale seems sound when it is noted that the tournament, a production of the ruling football body, has clandestinely encompassed the involvement of another key political figure.
Naturally, one could easily draw an associational inference.
It is no secret that this particular politician has been a very strong adversary of the K&S tournament and during last year’s presentation advocated a desire to emulate the initiative with a similar prestigious tournament that would have encompassed the participation of several international teams against their local counterparts. This tournament was touted to have offered lucrative monetary rewards. Unfortunately, that tournament never materialized and no explanation has been forthcoming of its future.
This tournament also runs the risk of a similar call for a boycott by dint of associational inferences and once found to be out of line with the prescribed policies, could received similar treatment.
It is indeed a dark day when sports activities, a strong uniting factor, are tainted by political overtones to the extent of partisanship.
The time may just have arrived to nudge the heads of all sports institutions as well as organizers of sports activities into the realization that the requisite disciplines are much bigger than the participants and one must be extremely cognizant of the volatile political environment which could compromise the integrity and success of these events.
The current brouhaha might have a devastating effect on the attendance of two football tournaments and then again the situation might evaporate into a storm in a teacup. Whatever the outcome, it should serve as a lesson to all sports entrepreneurs to demarcate between sports and politics since the two are combustible mixes. As any chemist would know, unless you are prepared to separate the volatile from the inert, the experiment should not be attempted.
Regarding the support of both tournaments, which coincidentally host the finals on New Year’s night, one could only surmise that both will be tarred with the same brush and given similar treatment.
Whichever way the hammer falls sports would be the eventual casualty. This would be very unfortunate but it is wise to halt all speculation. Otherwise, we just have to wait and see.

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