Aubrey Major writes to CONCACAF President Jeff Webb on K&S tourney

Sep 10, 2013 Sports

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It has been brought to the attention of Kaieteur Sport that Co-Director of the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation, Aubrey ‘Shanghai’ Major, has written to President of CONCACAF Jeff Webb on perceived unfair treatment in relation to the staging of their annual yearend tournament, which now seems in grave doubt.
Kaieteur Sport has obtained a copy of that letter and will carry in its entirety so our readers can assess for themselves the situation.
Here is the full text of the letter:

Dear Mr. Webb,
I was forced to write you these few important lines to bring you and CONCACAF’s attention of another brewing court matter in Guyana and am seeking your intervention in a proactive way to bring about an immediate settlement before any legal action is taken.
My name is Mr. Aubrey ‘Shanghai’ Major, a former executive member of the Guyana Football Federation and a Co-Director of the Kashif & Shanghai Organization that was organising the biggest club championships in the Caribbean for the past Twenty-Three Years.
Mr. President, as an executive member of the GFF during the time of your visit along with FIFA representatives as part of your visiting team, I fully supported your quest for a speedy resolution in the matter in the civil Court between the Guyana Football Federation and the Georgetown Football Association led by the GFF current President Mr. Christopher Matthias, who was the Secretary of the GFA at the time and we all agreed at a settlement with pardon from any further sanctions by FIFA, in the best interest of the game here in Guyana and to work together for the good of the game.
Please be informed that The Kashif & Shanghai Organization has created its own football season during the Christmas period Twenty-Three Years (23) ago to date and over the period we worked very closely with the Federation for the growth and development of the game and its players that we had collaborated with the Federation for a four (4) years period to assist the Federation, who was not enjoying a good relationship with the public and cooperate Guyana at the time.
We used this tournament to develop the National Programme by inviting scouts out of Trinidad to come and be a part of the season and identify players that was successful through Mr. Keith Look-loy and Jamaal Shabazz, who we brought and later took over the Guyana Golden Jaguars.
We also brought the World famous legend King Pele in 2009 to grace the tournament with his presence and to give the players an opportunity to meet, greet and have some insight from him to better themselves as players, as well as we had the distinguished privilege to have at the time the President of CONCACAF and Vice President of FIFA Mr. Austin Jack Warner in our mist to declare open the tournament, the best kept secret in the World, and from thereafter he pledged his support and sponsorship for the tournament a promise he had kept.
Mr. President during the period of the Court injunction between 2010-2012 we were faced with a parallel tournament hosted by Georgetown Football Association and sponsored by Banks DIH Beverage Company, all because we had honoured the rules of the GFF not to include any Georgetown teams inside the tournament due to their suspension and Court Injunction against the Federation.
Now that things are back to normal by your visit and both parties signed a MOU and after the elections of the Federation, which changed leadership of the sport, the vindictive acts by the current executives and support from the GFA, the Kashif and Shanghai Organization tournament is now in limbo after Twenty Three (23) consecutive Years.
We approached the Federation on our proposal for a new format to be compatible to that of the FIFA World Cup, we were now told that we have to apply to host the tournament, while Georgetown also applied to host their tournament during the same period as they did in 2010­-12.
We had a meeting with the Federation seeking answers to the hosting of the tournament despite we had sent in our new format a few months before the GFF elections and only to be told that we have to apply through an affiliate of the Federation, which we did and yet still we did not get any form of communication from the Federation, but now hearing through split press that we will have to move our tournament to Easter if we wish to host it.
Please be further advised that the tournament has been part of the calendar of events of the Federation over twenty years as well as the calendar for the Ministry of Tourism that you will read about the tournament while traveling Internationally to Guyana, and most Guyanese fix their vacation for that period of the tournament, so to tell us that we have to move to make way for Banks DIH and the GFA, we think it is very unfair to us in our Twenty-Fourth year, hence my reason to write you this mail.
Please note: that during the Christmas season in 1989 where the tournament started on Boxing day and finish on January 1,1990 with only four (4) teams it was difficult to have teams participate in the tournament during that period, now after establishing this period for us without interfering with other tournaments during the years and now to have it hijacked from us would not go down just like that after we were upholding the rules of the Federation against Georgetown teams participating despite those teams form the core of best teams in the Country.
I will attach the resolution for your guidance and to be proactive with this situation that is now unfolding before our eyes.
We are available to meet with you and members of the executives to discuss this situation to give you a firsthand information in order for you and your team to make a pronouncement on this developing situation in a speedy way, since it is already September and we would like to engage our sponsors to host the 24th Edition of the tournament.
Looking forward for you and CONCACAF’s intervention. Regards
Aubrey ‘Shanghai’ Major.

 

 

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