K&S football tournament in limbo…Could focus on Schools tournament instead

Sep 26, 2013 Sports

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By Sean Devers
The Kashif and Shanghai Organization Football tournament is in limbo as they refused to shift the dates for this year’s competition or have a parallel competition and could focus on their nationwide schools Football competition if the matter is not resolved by mid October.
Kashif Muhammad, speaking at the Water Chris Hotel yesterday disclosed that the 2013/2014 competition is fixed to commence on November 15 and be increased to 24 teams with 16 advancing to the knock-out stage.
The budget for prize money is $13 million with $6 Million going to the champions, $2 million to the runners up and $1 million to the third placed team. A car will be up for grabs for the most valuable player in the tournament which is scheduled to conclude with the grand final on New Year’s Day. The most valuable Coach will ride off with a motorcycle.
The K&S Organization was scheduled to meet Guyana’s Sports Minister yesterday after to try and have the issue of a parallel tournament run by the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) resolved and K&S are sticking to their guns and Muhammad said there is no way that they will hold their competition at another time of the year or with a parallel competition.
Muhammad feels that if the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) gives permission to the GFA to run off their tournament would be disrespect to them since they have played a massive role in Guyana’s football development since the tournament began 24 years ago.
The Idea of the Kashif and Shanghai competition was born in 1989 at a time when people from Linden had no major sporting event to look forward to during the Christmas holidays.
Kashif, who was a member of the Milerock Football Club, got together with “Shanghai” (Aubrey Major) who was with the Eagles United Football Club to organise a match between the two teams.
After further discussion, it was agreed to include two other teams from the Linden, Botofago and Central Hikers. This was the first Kashif and Shanghai football competition. In the final on New Year’s Day Milerock beat Eagles 2-1. Banks DIH limited put up G$4,000 as the inaugural sponsor.
In 1991, all seven Linden Football clubs were invited to participate. Eagles United won that year beating Milerock.
In 1992 Journalist Issiah Chappell was invited to cover the competition and for first time teams from out of Linden were invited to play. Botofago and Central Hikers contested the final. The teams were adjudged joint winners after penalty kicks failed to produce a winner.
The tournament has come a long way since then and is now considered Guyana’s premier football competition and now includes several overseas teams. Trinidadian team Doc’s Khelawalas, who won in 1998, is the only overseas side to win the competition.
Muhammad said under the previous GFF administration K&S agreed to hold their tournament with a parallel competition because they were abiding by the rules.
“When we played with a parallel competition over last two years we did not want to get involved in the politics of the sport since there was an impasse between the GFF and the GFA which prevented us from including most of the city players,” Muhammad explained.
The GFF had derecognized the GFA but a court order cleared them to organise their own tournament and Muhammad said he would not want to think that his organization was being victimized for not allowing the derecognized players or clubs to participate in their tournament.
“We are less than satisfied with the way the GFF is dealing with us and since the new executives have taken over we have found it hard to adhere to all of GFF’s requirements, which is making it difficult for us to get sponsors on board,” Muhammad lamented.
At the time of the impasse between the GFF and the GFA, Christopher Matthias was the then General Secretary of the GFF. Matthias is now GFF head and Muhammad disclosed that several letters were sent to the GFF and the K&S Organisation met with the local governing body for football.
However, “time is running declared Muhammad and we have got the Women’s Football Association (WFA) to collaborate with us to stage this year’s competition since the GFF mandates that we go through a sub Association.”
“We plan to start the knock-out round by mid December but because of this delay we are having difficulties in securing sponsorship since among the GFF requirements are levy fees, letter of commitment from sponsors, letter of confirmation from clubs and sub Associations among others.
“We want the best players and clubs in our tournament we don’t want to dilute the standard of play so we will not accept a parallel tournament or a different period of the year. If we can’t get what we request by mid-October we will cancel the competition and focus on the schools competition similar to the one being run by Digicel,” Muhammad informed.
Muhammad who also informed he had written to CONCACAF President Jeffery Webb explaining what they have contributed to Guyana’s football and sating why the GFF should give K&S exclusive sanctioning rights but they are yet to receive a response.

 

 

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