FIFA Forward Programme Facility… Laying of Artificial Turf to commence shortly – Forde

Apr 28, 2018 Sports

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The laying of the turf for Guyana’s first Football Facility that’ll be owned and controlled by the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) is scheduled to commence shortly, so says President of the local governing body, Wayne Forde.
Forde, speaking with media operatives last week at the GFF Headquarters, Section ‘K’ Campbellville expressed delight that the GFF National Training Centre being constructed under the FIFA Forward Programme is nearer to being reality.
”The project is always good news actually, I was there recently and they’re getting ready to start laying the turf. We have congress on the 12th of May and I’m hoping that on the 13th which would be the Sunday that I can invite all of you guys who still have a good pair of knees and we can go out there, run around and kick some ball.”
Forde said that he has made this known to the contractor, not in a way to impose any pressure, noting that it would be a good event for all members of the Congress to experience and be a part of a historic project.
”This would not be the official opening of course but at least they’ll see a surface that would be new to Guyana. But we are moving along very well.”
Forde, who was in the Twin Island Republic to witness the Lady Jags 0-0 draw with Grenada in their first match of the CFU Women’s Challenge Series, reported that phase one of this project is well over 90% complete.
”We expanded phase one from the original scope and what we have expanded is that the existing building, we’re going to be modifying same so we can start doing encampment there; we’re going to be doing some development work of the entire ground, cleaning and sand filling.
We’re going to be installing four imported aluminum stands with a total seating capacity of around 2000 persons; this is just to bring the facility to a functional state.”
Lights, Forde informed would be installed subsequent to this with the massive construction to follow.
”The dorms, gym, pool and the admin building; we want to bring it to a state where we can play football while the other aspects of the construction are taking place.”
Quizzed on the recent situation when the Guyana Defence Force was unable to fulfill its obligation of competing at the CONCACAF Caribbean Shield which was won by Suriname’s Inter Moengotapoe, Forde stated that the entire experience was unfortunate.
”I think there were two other countries that did not show up as well. It is very unfortunate and of course the executive committee was very hurt by the fact that the GDF could not make it to that competition.”
Forde explained that when it became evident that there would have been challenges for the team to travel, the GFF got involved and tried its utmost to ensure that the team was able to make it but that was not to be.
”We would have negotiated certain facilities and offered guarantees on the part of the federation but the time was very, very tight and the travel agency felt that the connecting route that they had to now fly the team through could have resulted in the team being stranded and there was a fear that if that had occurred it might have been felt that the travel agency just did a poor job, rather than the fact that they were asked to do this 24 hours before departure.”
The GFF boss said that he had to respect that decision since if had gone through it would have also amounted to the GFF being committed to millions of dollars that didn’t produce anything.
”We are continuing to engage the Guyana Defence Force team; they are an important stakeholder within our football programme. We hope that in the future with stronger collaboration and more open communication we can see these things coming and mitigate.”
The federation would be making moves to put systems in place going forward to ensure that there is not a repeat of a similar situation, Forde posited.
”It will go officially before the board in a matter of days when we approve the congress agenda, and that is the winner of the leagues will not receive their full prize. Once you win the league you are automatically qualified for the Caribbean Championship and a percentage of the prize would be retained to add to whatever CONCACAF would provide and the federation exco would also take a decision to draw from our travel provision and we will put something to that.”
Based on the non-show of the GDF, the GFF is now mandated to submit a comprehensive report to CONCACAF indicating how the situation got to the point where the team could not have travelled.
Forde indicated that it is hoped that CONCACAF would consider all the factors since the fines are likely to exceed the total travel costs that the team would have incurred.
”You have to appreciate the arrangements and plans, the hotels would have been booked and it was a lot of cost that CONCACAF would have invested up front for this. The entire business and plans would have been disrupted, we run competitions here and we understand what happens if a team doesn’t show up and this was an international competition.”
It was also pointed out that such an experience does not help the image of Guyana on the international scene: “I have done tremendous work over the past two years to ensure that we really reshape our image and much of that would have been evident in the occasions that Guyana would have been given opportunity. As a matter of fact Guyana is going to be on center stage at the FIFA Congress in Russia so FIFA and CONCACAF has a good feel for the strategic direction of Guyana.”

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