FIFA and CONCACAF notified of shooting incident at Futsal Finals

Apr 23, 2018 Sports

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GFF President raps with media on pertinent issues

President of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Wayne Forde in a sit down with a few members of the media has shed light on a number of pertinent issues affecting the beautiful game.

In recent months, the sport has been affected by multiple shooting incidents at Futsal and Street football; allegations of inappropriate behavior by senior officials of the sport and on a positive note, the GFF has returned to full compliance as deemed by FIFA after the world body would have suspended funding since 2015 following a FIFA audit that was conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC); the FIFA Forward Project at Providence is moving apace; Funding to MA’s in various areas is imminent; GDF non-participation at CONCACAF Caribbean Cup Shield being looked into.
These and other matters were expounded upon by Wayne Forde (WF):
Shooting incident at the National Gymnasium
WF- It’s a very serious incident that occurred, from what I understand it was a very good night for football, patrons were certainly having a good experience, it was an exciting match and the reports that we have so far is that the incident that resulted from the shooting had nothing to do with the game.
Of course, through the competitions department and other stakeholders we have launched an investigation and we are gathering all the evidence before we make a pronouncement. Any matter of this nature must be dealt with very seriously, we have to protect the game but above all we have to protect the patrons, players and officials. For someone to discharge a loaded firearm in a crowded space is unthinkable, but we’re living in different times.
Anyone that breaches the FIFA Statutes, brings the game into disrepute and threatens the lives of patrons, players and officials will be completely banned from all sanctioned football activity of the federation.
The international governing bodies monitors all of its members feed so we have reported that we had this incident at one of our games and we’re investigating it. We have benefitted from guidance in some specific areas that CONCACAF in particular would like us to confirm, one being what security arrangements were in place and we have reached out to the organizer to have them provide us that information and any eye witness report that can help in understanding how the crowd was managed after the incident would have occurred.
Thank God no one was injured but what we can do is make the most of it and learn and try to build the necessary operational framework and structures that can mitigate any repeat of a similar situation.
Forde also noted that the federation would be meeting with the National Sports Commission and together would be working on putting a framework in place to govern the uses of the facility.
Female football team participation CFU Challenge Series in T&T next week and beyond
WF-The preparation for the local girls has been decent, the international girls have been playing frequently in competitions and they are coming with what we expect to be a good fitness level. Reports that I’ve had, engaging with the new coach and management team, is that they are very positive, they are looking forward to really stamp their authority on this competition. This is all in preparation for the CONCACAF qualification that we are hosting in Guyana in May.
In terms of the longer term development for female football in Guyana, there are a couple of competitions that we are launching in the coming months but from an association standpoint, we are completing the funding support to our regional members and this package would roll out at our Congress in May.”
Forde indicated that part of the package, they would see significant support for the Senior Men’s League in all 9 MA’s, while a certain amount of funds would be allocated to an MA which has the capacity to run off an Under-15 Girls League.
“Much of what we want to do with female football in Guyana would have to begin at the Under-15 level. Those associations that can run an Under-15 and a senior girls (league) we would also help with that but our emphasis would be on the Under-15 girls.”
Performance of Member Association’s (MA)
The GFF head described his members associations as nine key partners in the development of the game, noting that it is useless for the central partner to have a brilliant vision and strong strategy but it is not being executed and implemented at the MA level. Forde shared his views on MAs performances.
WF-I am very disappointed with the inactivity at some of our associations, as a matter of fact, inactivity is probably putting it mildly. But we also recognise a role in that and in my immediate submission, after we would have had our compliance status restored two weeks ago, we would have applied for several projects but in the first five that I have asked FIFA to accelerate is the member capacity support.
That is the funding that would come to the leagues, the setting up of the offices; I think we have allocated USD$13,500 for each office towards equipment and furnishings along with $100,000 a month for paid staff. We believe that once we set a member up properly we can only expect that they will deliver.
The way that we are going to be doing it this time around is that the GFF will establish nine regional offices because we want the association to work out of that office along with the technical staff that has been seconded to those associations to work out of those offices also.
We recognise this as our role.”
Forde lamented the fact that many officials have taken on the responsibility of serving but have been very dormant and in some cases, over two years to the extent that they have not been even running off competitions that are being funded by the federation along with material support.
“This is inexcusable in my opinion, like myself, I think we all have to go before our membership at some point in time and open up our report card and hopefully the members would make decisions on how they feel an executive body would have performed. At some point I would have to do the same and I hope that when I open up my report card it would be to the satisfaction of the members and they’ll hand me another mandate to volunteer 14-hours a day, 8-days a week in the service of football.”
When asked to point out those MA’s that are not up to scratch, this was Forde’s response: “I would say that those of us who pay attention to football would not need the president to highlight where we would have been falling down. I think football has maintained a certain rhythm in terms of its operations over the years; we expect a lot from Georgetown, Linden, East Bank and East Coast and those have been some of the strongest members. If one or two of these members are not performing it is easy to see, so that is as close as I would get to identifying any specific members.”
In relation to the Georgetown Football Association, Forde informed that his executive would have engaged the association at several levels including face to face interaction where the federation’s sentiments were laid bare on the table.
“We have undertaken some procedural programmes to streamline the situation in Georgetown and we expect that in a matter of weeks we would have this situation, regularised.”
Suspension of Exco Member, Keith Ojeer
The GFF would have disclosed via another newspaper that it had commenced an investigation in an allegation of inappropriate behavior by Executive Member Keith Ojeer. Forde indicated that it is not appropriate for him to speculate on the issue since it is being dealt with.
“What I might add is that the executive committee of the GFF holds itself to high standards; we believe that we are the standard bearers of the fraternity and we expect from each other that we would respect the rules of the game and if anyone, including, I appears not to be following those rules, then within our internal governance structure we would deal with it. If you take a very good look at the composition of my executive body you would know that we would not turn a blind eye to anything that we think can tarnish the reputation of the sport.”

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