Golden Jaguars ready to roar despite passport fiasco!

Jun 14, 2015 Sports

By Santokie Nagulendran
Guyanese football has been a rollercoaster ride in recent times, with the lows of the Matthias administration

Santokie Nagulendran

consequently being put to rest by the initial good work being done by FIFA’s Normalisation committee over the course of 2015. However, things took a turn for the worse on Wednesday morning when it was shockingly revealed in the media that four overseas-based players had failed to be naturalised and receive the Guyanese passports required to play in the first leg of the World Cup qualifier against St Vincent and the Grenadines that same day. The players ultimately received their citizenship on Friday afternoon and are now ready to play for Guyana tonight in the second leg, but the fact that such a situation was allowed to occur is shambolic.
The four players: Matthew Briggs, Neil Danns, Marcel Barrington and Sam Cox all play their club football in England and their inclusion in the Golden Jaguars squad had given fans renewed optimism in the potential of the Golden Jaguars. Danns and Briggs had played in Guyana’s 2-0 friendly win over Grenada, where they eased into the side and looked comfortable, so it was staggering to find out that these two players in particular, who had committed to Guyana way back in March, were without the Passports needed to play in the big World Cup qualifier for Guyana three months later.
Was there a lack of communication between the GFF and Government? There was no transparency or clear explanation given to the public and fans as to what caused the delay. From what has

The four UK-based Jags received Guyanese Citizenship on Friday.

been gathered so far, the issue related to the fact that all the concerned players were applying for citizenship via a Grandparent rather than a Mother or Father, and alongside the fact that Government has changed, this halted the process. Yet these issues should have been identified earlier on, and all parties concerned should have been prepared, instead we found four very talented players being forced to sit out the game on Wednesday, a move that could have potentially destroyed Guyana’s 2018 World Cup ambitions.
In television interviews both GFF Assistant General Secretary Diedre Davis and Director of Marketing and Communications Rawle Toney insisted the delay had been due to the new Government’s thorough handling of the process and that nobody was to blame due to the unique situation of a change of Government. Ms Davis stated in a press conference that, “I think it’s a matter of thoroughness on the government’s part.We, as a federation, must appreciate that. While for us it’s a bit of a difficult position to be in, we must understand that we must appreciate their need for thoroughness.” It was a rather vague and confusing statement that repeated the words ‘appreciate’ and ‘thoroughness’ without actually explaining what had caused the problem to arise. No member of the Normalisation Committee, led by Clinton Urling, has commented on the matter so far.
The story went on to make news in UK National Newspaper ‘The Daily Mirror’ under the headline ‘Neil Danns World Cup dreams scuppered by passport problems’, and the article was shared on social media over a thousand times, portraying Guyana as incompetent, it is a public relations disaster for not only the GFF, but also the nation as a whole, as any reader of the media reports would be led to believe that both Government and the GFF have been remarkably slow to act in the matter.
The four UK-based players did not end up going to St Vincent, they took flights to Barbados on Tuesday, before having to turn back and return to Guyana the next day. Such a process was both a waste of valuable time and money, especially for a cash-strapped Federation such as the GFF. If Guyana wants to be taken seriously on the footballing stage, the GFF, led by the Normalisation Committee, can simply not allow such comical errors to happen. The situation of the UK-based players went right down to the wire and with tension building, they finally got their passports on Friday, 48 hours before game time.
However, football had to carry on regardless amidst this chaos, and the fiasco ended up over-shadowing the fact that Guyana still had a very good side playing on Wednesday. A tough battle saw the Golden Jaguars earn a 2-2 draw and more importantly, take an away goal advantage to take to the next leg tonight at Providence Stadium.
Young midfielder Brandon Beresford and winger Ricky Shakes, making his first appearance for Guyana in three years, were the goal-scorers in a game where Guyana would be disappointed not to win after taking the lead twice. A concern still remains in the ability of defence, with the team leaking two goals, as they did earlier in the year against Barbados.
The team should now be a lot stronger with the inclusion of the four-UK based players and with Matthew Briggs and Sam Cox set to join the starting line-up tonight, the defence should be better equipped to deal with the pacey attack of the opposition.
As of writing this column (Saturday afternoon), no Press Release has been given from the GFF to clarify the details of the delay, but Guyana will hopefully reflect and learn from these administrative mistakes; with the four players now officially Guyanese citizens, they can make an immediate impact by taking the Golden Jaguars one step close to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.