Lumumba on petition drive to find solution

Nov 11, 2012 Sports

“The GFF and the GFA both need to agree to pull back and once they can pull back we can pull back.”Alpha United’s President Odinga Lumumba said during a Press briefing called to address the current impasse between the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and the Georgetown Football Association (GFA).
According to the Alpha United President, he plans to launch a petition as early as next week calling for the intervention of a third party to bring an end to the standoff between the GFF and the GFA.
“I am appealing to both sides the administration of the GFF and the administration of the GFA put sides behind them and take bold steps to bring the unification of football to the helm. If not the game will further erode”.
Lumumba referring to the sport which has a predominately African base that plays said “you have hundreds of young kids who can turn to football to change their lives, moving away from crime and formalize some kind of discipline in the way they view their lives and the world”.
He added the blame should not only be cast at the feet of the GFF and the GFA, but the football fraternity of which he is a part of.
According to him if persons feel the need to retain the old leadership it is their democratic right, but there needs to be some form of reconciliation between the GFA and the GFF.
Lumumba reacting to the constant fighting between the two sides said “one can only state that if you were unified and the direction of football was positive we probably would have done better in the World Cup, but lack of resources, support have caused Guyana’s team to be weak and unproductive”.
He, however, said that persons who are friendly to football could form an organization and petition FIFA for recognition to bring an end to the GFF-GFA impasse, Lumumba pointed out.
Alpha United is still affiliated to the GFF according to Lumumba.
Nothing, Lumumba said has changed. “As you know we pulled out of the GFA because we felt and I still feel that the GFA should have been bold enough to accept a resolution on this matter. But we stand on the side of the GFF; we stand on the side of football not only the GFF, but on football”.
Lumumba said since the two sides have been unable to come to a compromise he will be starting a petition drive next week to try and bring about some form of solution. Sponsors and clubs are among the groups that will be petitioned, he stated.
“If these two parties can’t resolve it then the only solution is to form another GFF that will encompass everybody. At some point we have to do that if these two parties can’t rectify the situation then the only solution is a third party involvement. Maybe people who are friendly to football could come together and form an organization and ask FIFA for recognition. We have to force these two parties to come together”.
Among the names he listed were President of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) Juman Yassim and Ivor O’Brian who can be approached to play a role in bring about a resolution.
“We are once again faced with this dilemma at the end of December we have the Kashif and Shanghai tournament and the GFA tournament and again there is massive disagreement and massive division and we have to figure a way to get out of this and I have to blame the administration on both sides for being unable to resolve what I perceive to be a very simple issue which has become complex”.
Clubs associated to GFF and GFA will compete in the competitions that its governing body supports. Again Lumumba said the GFA should withdraw the court case under the conditions that were agreed to with the GFF.
“But the GFA will keep its administration intact and the GFF will ensure that all associations including the GFA hold their annual elections and after they have done that then there should be national elections so that we can select new leadership for the GFF”.
Lumumba concluded by informing that he will try to organize a meeting with the two sides to initiate a solution.

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