Captain Chris Nurse: ‘’Golden Jaguars need to be competing regularly!’’

Sep 20, 2015 Sports

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By Santokie Nagulendran

Guyanese football has been occupied with various developments over the past few weeks, with the Guyana Football Federation focusing on the FIFA appeal against Saint Vincent and the Grenadines use of an alleged ineligible player, the launch of the inaugural GFF Elite League and also the impending GFF Congress on November 14th. However, whilst one always welcomes activity aimed at bettering Guyanese Football, recent events have masked the fact that Guyana’s National Team, the Golden Jaguars, failed to play an International game during the FIFA International Window in September and with no matches for future windows announced…have the Golden Jaguars been sent back into hiding?
With the next round of World Cup qualifiers having taken place earlier this month, it almost certainly spells the end for Guyana’s hopes of being re-instated into the World Cup qualification process. The GFF are now pursuing the case with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Zurich, and should they be victorious, it is likely financial compensation will be given to Guyana rather than World Cup reinstallation. It is therefore now time to focus on the immediate development of Guyana’s National Team and begin the post-World Cup journey for the Golden Jaguars.
The domestic Elite League is desperately needed in Guyana and will develop players endlessly through providing regular competition, however, it is important that the National Team is also active during this period, playing regular games during the FIFA-allocated windows, utilising the local players who will be fitter and better experienced due to participation in the Elite League, as well as calling on overseas-based players such as Christopher Nurse, Neil Danns, Brandon Beresford, Matthew Briggs and Sam Cox. The 2016 Caribbean Cup is only a year away and should be what the National Team prepares for as of now, with the objective being to finish in the top four of the cup and reach the coveted 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup, where opponents such as USA and Mexico will feature. Should Guyana qualify for the Gold Cup, they would be the first Men’s team in the history of the country to reach a FIFA tournament and this should be a realistic target for a strong Golden Jaguars side.
This time last year, Guyana exited the Caribbean Cup in humiliating fashion, failing to score a single goal in their three games, a result of the National Team being inactive for nearly two years beforehand. Whilst it would be unfair to compare the resurgent GFF under the Normalisation Committee to the dire state of the GFF last year under Christopher Matthias, it is important not to under-estimate the value of the National Team playing regularly and not getting complacent in the process. Already Guyana has missed out on utilising the September window to play an International game, and with only two more windows left this year, the Normalisation Committee needs to arrange competition for the Golden Jaguars before they leave office on November 14th or else risk the Golden Jaguars development stifling once again.
When contacted, GFF Director of Marketing and Communications, Rawle Toney, was unable to clarify the Federation’s position on arranging future friendly games for this year.
National Team Captain Christopher Nurse spoke to me about the issue of inactivity: “We (the players) spoke with coach Jamaal Shabazz regarding the inactivity of the Men’s national programme once again and the Normalisation Committee have informed him that right now the finances of the federation have been restricted so it has been difficult to arrange fixtures on the international dates.” Nurse went on to suggest this has been a problem within Guyanese Football over the past few years, “We have been in too this position too many times before in the past, when we miss FIFA dates, we fall in the FIFA rankings, which in turn is detrimental to future positioning for tournaments.”
“There is frustration due to a repeat of old habits, whereby we play tournaments and then become dormant until the next tournament arises. That cannot continue with any aspirations of being successful, consistency is key and that means we need to be playing as a nation and competing regularly. The Caribbean Cup begins in a few months’ time and preparation for that tournament should have begun 2 months ago.”
After November, when the newly elected Executive Committee takes charge of the GFF, there will be no further International windows until March 2016, meaning if the Golden Jaguars do not play again until then, there would have been nine long months of inactivity since their World Cup qualifier in June, which would put the team at a disadvantage in the 2016 Caribbean Cup when facing the likes of Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago, teams which have played regularly together over the past few years and also have significant games to look forward to, due to still being in the World Cup qualification process.
Arranging friendlies is notoriously difficult for Caribbean sides, with high air fares and lack of direct flights between islands making it logistically difficult to organise, yet the top teams in the region manage to play regular friendly games. Barbados, themselves eliminated from the World Cup in June, took part in a friendly game against St Vincent last month. St Kitts and Nevis have also recently announced they will be touring Europe in the November International Window to play friendlies, a first for the island, and a move which means Guyana will be playing catch-up if they fail to arrange games.
The launch of the Elite League this past Friday has been great for Guyanese Football and will kick-start long-term development of local football, as Nurse points out: “It was great to see the Domestic Elite League kicking off on Friday, I will be keeping a close eye out for team mates. Congratulations to everyone who contributed to making it happen. We now have regular domestic football playing in Guyana and that is progress. We need to keep the momentum going with football relentlessly and finally make this game reach its full potential in this country.” With attention focused on the league however, it is important that the National Team is not left neglected on the side-lines during such a critical period of time or history will ultimately repeat itself.

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