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New administration must pressure former regime to disclose Mexico proceeds

Apr 18, 2013 Sports

 

By Rawle Welch
The year 2013 will be remembered as the time this country’s football experienced a change in fortune that not even the most optimistic of individuals could have envisaged and full credit must go to, first, the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) and, second, the FIFA / CONCACAF team that came and granted a stay of execution to the aggrieved members that created much disquiet within the local governing body.
It was the GFA that displayed the fortitude to challenge the GFF’s legitimacy to withhold its voting rights by taking the governing body to Court that eventually brought about a visit from FIFA / CONCACAF.
The decisions to not penalise any member, the staging of a free and fair election of office bearers of the Guyana Football Federation’s (GFF) largest affiliate the GFA and to hold its own Electoral Congress, pointed to the beginning of a new dispensation which was evidently manifested on Friday, April 12 when the fraternity was able to wrestle free from the hegemonic rule that had released a gigantic silhouette over the sport for over two decades.
That night in the Savannah Suite of the Pegasus Hotel, after some amount of anxiety during the voting process, all those connected with the sport jumped with euphoria and was able to embrace in public the newly elected President Christopher Matthias without the fear of reprisal or neglect.
The cash for votes scandal that prompted the retirement of Jack Warner and suspension of Colin Klass in addition to the visit of the high ranking team, severely weakened the previously impregnable administrative backline of the GFF.
The new President now has the unenviable task of restructuring a Federation whose ingrained policies hindered development, while the task to lighten the monstrous debt left by the past administration must be a preoccupation of him and his team.
Matthias as he has shown in the past seems receptive to consensus positions as demonstrated by his nomination to vie for the Presidency.
However, in his attempt to be inclusive, he must guard against those who might be bent on undermining the work of the new executive, while he must also act fearlessly to rid the Federation of remnants of the old establishment that governed by instilling fear into those who opposed its policies.
It is also imperative that he initiate a full probe into the Mexico fiasco and the GOAL Project and this investigation must be guided by FIFA and CONCACAF.
A full examination of the accounts by a reputable firm must be undertaken to ascertain whether there was financial misconduct and if any the extent of such indiscretion.
Matthias’ presence at tomorrow’s CONCACAF / CFU Ordinary Congresses is deemed crucial to his stewardship since he has promised to seek guidance on the way forward from the respective Bodies.
His responses on return could prove to be enlightening on how the new executive extracts pertinent information from the old regime that has dodged the media despite copious calls for them to be transparent.
The Mexico story must not be laid to rest and nothing less than a comprehensive disclosure should be insisted on by the new Body.
It could very well characterize the Matthias-led administration as well as determine whether or not there is a new dispensation as touted by stakeholders.

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